TESTIMONY
Josh Nachowitz, Senior Vice President for Economic Development at the Alliance for Downtown New York, on supporting zoning reforms to encourage diverse and vibrant ground floor retail in downtown Manhattan
3:53:10
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87 sec
Josh Nachowitz expresses the Alliance for Downtown New York's strong support for the City of Yes for Economic Opportunity zoning reform initiative.
- The proposed reforms will provide property owners and entrepreneurs the flexibility needed to maintain active, inviting streetscapes critical to the success of downtown districts
- Vibrant, diverse ground floor retail is key, but downtown faces headwinds from changing consumer habits, e-commerce, and uncertainty over office use
- Reforms will allow makerspaces, urban agriculture, small entertainment venues, enabling more diverse and interesting retail corridors
- With the right regulatory environment, entrepreneurs can seize the opportunity to create a new, sustainable vision for the city's retail future
Josh Nachowitz
3:53:10
Good afternoon.
3:53:11
My name is Josh Snackiewicz.
3:53:12
I'm the Senior Vice President for Economic Development at the Alliance for Downtown New York.
3:53:15
It's a pleasure to be here this afternoon as the business improvement district.
3:53:19
Representing New York City's largest business districts, the downtown lines strongly supports the city of yes for economic opportunity initiative.
3:53:25
This package of reforms will provide property owners and entrepreneurs with the tools of flexibility necessary to maintain the active and inviting streetscape that is so critical to the long term success of our district.
3:53:35
We all know that vibrant and diverse ground floor uses are critical to the success of vibrant commercial districts.
3:53:41
Our district unfortunately faces serious headwinds coming out of the COVID crisis.
3:53:45
From changing consumer spending habits, the rise of ecommerce, and the obvious ongoing uncertainties over long term office utilization.
3:53:52
In this uncertain environment, entrepreneurs and property owners need regulatory flexibility to find creative, attractive, and viable uses for ground floor retail space.
3:54:00
BCP's proposed set of zoning tech developments would go a long way toward allowing and indeed encouraging the sort of creativity that is needed to develop the retail corridors of the future.
3:54:08
Allowing for makerspaces, urban agriculture, and small scale entertainment venues will allow for more diverse and interesting retail corridors, upfitting long obsolete use restrictions with the right businesses and community leaders alike.
3:54:18
With greater clarity on how ground floor spaces can be appropriately activated.
3:54:22
Given the support of regulatory environment, small business owners and entrepreneurs can seize this unique opportunity create a new and sustainable vision of the future for the future of our city's retail.
3:54:31
As such, the downtown alliance strongly encourages the commission to approve these much needed and common sense owning reforms.
3:54:36
You for the opportunity to test why.