Board 3 is pushing landlords to foster retail diversity, vitality

Community Board 3 on Tuesday announced that it would be starting a letter campaign to property owners and real estate brokers in the neighborhood. The community board’s district covers the East Village and Lower East Side, south of 14th St., east of Fourth Ave./Bowery and, at its southern end, down to Baxter and Pearl Sts. and the Brooklyn Bridge.

The letter campaign will ask landlords to help promote the economic vitality of the community by renting to a diverse mix of commercial renters, not just to nightlife businesses, banks and chain stores. C.B. 3 hopes to stem the loss of mom-and-pop shops that serve the needs of local residents. The board’s hope is that this will also help turn around the current condition of some streets where storefronts are shuttered all day because of vacancies or nightlife businesses.

The community board is looking forward to the cooperation of property owners who currently may be renting only to nightlife businesses in an effort to receive a higher rent.

Board 3’s letter pointedly notes that it is also “a notice to landlords that the community board is responsible for making recommendations to the New York State Liquor Authority to support or deny liquor licenses.” C.B. 3 has confirmed its policies on not welcoming new licenses in areas already oversaturated with licensed businesses, which are also the areas of many resident complaints about nightlife noise. In other words, the board is warning landlords that they should not tell their prospective lessees that they can be assured of receiving a liquor license in oversaturated areas.

Dominic Pisciotta, chairperson of C.B. 3, said, “We hope to have landlords work with us to plan for a community that has a vibrant nightlife industry and also a diverse community of retailers, offices and organizations that serve the needs of our residents. We can’t expect retailers to rent stores on streets that have no daytime traffic; we need to work toward and plan to achieve a well-rounded community. Many of our property owners and brokers are also residents and share our interests.”