The Bedford Stuyvesant Gateway BID

For nearly 30 years many merchants, residents, and property owners of the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, sought to form an organization specifically dedicated to:

• address threats to business vitality
• build on local assets throughout Central Brooklyn's primary commercial corridor.

In the past decade, the community's vision for such an organization continued to be shaped by the passion and strength of the former Fulton/Nostrand United Merchants Association and the technical assistance of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. These organizations later partnered with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce  and the NYC Department of Small Business Services to augment their grassroots efforts. From this partnership came Fulton FIRST  -- a local economic development initiative that focused on the retail revitalization of Fulton Street. The years that followed consisted of strategic planning and community organizing for the purpose of forming the Gateway.

On March 30, 2009 Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed legislation establishing the Bed-Stuy Gateway Business Improvement District as the City's 64th BID and the 20th in the Bloomberg Administration. Beginning operations in October 2009, the Gateway services one of Brooklyn's busiest business districts centered at the intersection of Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue.

The Bed-Stuy Gateway is home to 400 businesses contained within nearly 500,000 square feet of retail space.  The primary commercial district for Central Brooklyn, (home to New York City's largest black population) the Gateway's identity is uniquely punctuated with African American, African, and Caribbean influences.

A ten minute walk for over 80,000 residents and twenty minutes from Manhattan by subway, Bed-Stuy Gateway is one of Brooklyn's most prominent commercial and cultural focal points.

Photos courtesy of Brooklyn Public Library