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April 19, 2011
Tug o' war for B'klyn biz bucks
NY Post
by Rich Calder
There’s a turf war heating up in Downtown Brooklyn.
At stake is control of a striving Business Improvement District representing 25 square blocks in and around Metro Tech Center.
The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a public-private entity created by the Bloomberg administration in 2006 to spur local economic development, is trying to seize control of Metro Tech BID.
...But, unlike two nearby Downtown BIDs that quietly agreed to partnership takeovers in 2010, board members for Metro Tech BID are split.
A faction, including top brass, refuse to award the partnership a $300,000-a-year contract to run the BID – despite pressure from City Hall and developer Forest City Ratner, which built Metro Tech’s office complex in the 1980s.
...“It’s dead wrong to have one group be Downtown Brooklyn’s only voice, and this would set a bad precedent for all city BIDs, ” said Michael Weiss, Metro Tech BID’s executive director.
The partnership is paid $220,000 yearly to run smaller, adjacent BIDs representing Fulton Mall and the Court-Livingston-Schermerhorn streets corridor.
Weiss -- who’d lose his $165,000-a-year job through the merger -- said the plan would “devastate services” for small businesses and the neighborhood’s growing residential community because the partnership “usually puts large developers’ needs first.”
...Forest City officials, including CEO Bruce Ratner, hold seven of the 33 voting board seats at the BID.
Posted by eric at April 19, 2011 10:27 AM