MetroTech BID To Expand Into Covering Fort Greene Cultural Institutions
The MetroTech Business Improvement District (BID) is hoping to expand its boundaries from Downtown Brooklyn to include some cultural institutions in part of Fort Greene next Tuesday, May 5 will be your chance to learn more and voice your support or concerns at a public hearing, hosted by Community Board 2 (CB2) at 6pm at LIU Brooklyn’s Jonas Board Room, inside the building at Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues.
As seen in the above map, the BID’s boundaries would grow to form a “sub-district” that includes part of DeKalb Avenue (between Rockwell and Fort Greene Places), BRIC, Theatre For A New Audience, Mark Morris Dance Group, BAM Opera House, Atlantic Terminal, and Atlantic Center.
According to MetroTech BID — which is part of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership — the expansion is the culmination of a year of discussions about how to “create a maintenance entity covering areas of the newly-established Brooklyn Cultural District.”
Also covered would be some residential buildings such as One Hanson Place, as well as two public plazas in the works: “a completely renovated Fox Square [the former home of Five Guys From Brooklyn] and a new 16,000-square-foot plaza [called Times Plaza] as part of the BAM South Site on the corner of Lafayette and Flatbush.”
Robert Perris, district manager of CB2, noted that “it seems that at least for several of the larger residential buildings [such as One Hanson], they’ve been on board pretty much from the beginning. and generally, commercial property owners are on board with expanding an existing BID. and existing cultural institutions have much to gain and much to give.”
According to Norman Oder of the Atlantic Yards Report, the project has a proposed budget of $771,533:
according to a document shared by Community Board 2 District Manager Robert Perris after my inquiry, [the budget] includes:
- $165,873 for sanitation
- $58,500 for landscaping
- $47,550 for maintenance
- $46,550 for the Arts Plaza (next to Theatre for a New Audience on Ashland Place)
- $161,800 for the South Site Plaza
- $50,000 for programming
Most of the remaining sums would go to administration and reserve.
What do you think about this planned expansion?
The public hearing is part of the monthly meeting of CB2’s Economic Development and Job Creation Committee, which will make a recommendation to the full board, which will then meet on Wednesday, May 13 to decide whether to support the expansion plan. Any support or lack of support is just a consideration, not an actual requirement for projects to move forward.