Rick Ammirato, the Executive Director of the BID made a presentation to the Common Council proposing their blessing of the BID expansion. The new $1.65 Million in assessments that would be generated by the expansion of the BID to 57,345 square feet that would be generated by the BID formula applied to the property owners in the West, South and East sides of the city where they are eying expansion. Slide above shows "assessment" impact on different-sized properties.  "GFA" stands for Gross Footage Area and "LSF" stands for Linear Square Frontage (on street).

Hearing in February Perhaps.

Ammirato said that if the Council is amiable to the plan presented last night, that he hoped a public hearing on the proposed expansion would be held in February. At which time all property owners and interested parties could speak on their feelings about expanding the district. After the hearing, all property owners in the newly proposed BID Districts would be given the opportunity to vote on the plans or opt-out.

Ammirato noted that there are two ways the expansion of the districts would be defeated -- if more than 50% of all property owners in the affected areas vote against it or if 50% of the largest Gross Footage Area owners voted against it. If that test is met, Ammiratto said the expansion plan goes to the New York State Comptroller for approval. Mr.Ammirato told WPCNR today that if any newly proposed districts defeated the proposal, the BID may redraw its plan to reconfigure to property owners who do wish to be in a BID District.

The new district would expand West along the South side of Main Street to the Train Station (including the Galleria), according to Ammirato, and West along East Post Road past White Plains Hospital Center, and South on Mamaroneck Road to the Bloomingdale Road intersection.

Would Enable BID to Expand Services

Ammirato aggressively outlined a new role for the BID which has limited its $675,000 budget to staging and managing city events to attract customers to the Central Business District such as parades, the New Year’s Eve celebration, a Taste of White Plains, and occasional events at Renaissance Plaza. as well as providing a 4-man sidewalk sweeping team to keep the downtown clean during daylight hours.

Ammirato said the expansion of the BID zone would enable the BID to hire 8 more street sweepers (a total of 12) to apply the BID clean streets campaign to the new areas the BID hopes to expand. Ammirato also said the new budget would enable the BID to buy diesel-powered “Green Machine” sidewalk sweeping machines that would triple the efficiency of the BID sidewalk sweeping team.

Jeffrey Sluman, of the BID said that Mr. Ammirato and members of the BID board would be approaching large property owners and small property owners in the new BID expansion areas if the Council approves, in January to convince the property owners of the advantages of extending the BID District for themselves as well as for the city.

Visions of the BID

According to Mr. Ammirato, the BID has great visions of what to do with the additional Million Dollars in budget generated by expanding the BID District.

He said the BID wants to program 14 weeks of events at Renaissance Plaza, plan a summer concert on Mamaroneck Avenue, hold a second Child Safety Day on East Post Road/ Lexington Avenue; generate a Holiday Shopping Promotion the day after Thanksgiving similar to that staged by Stamford. He also plans to continue the Small Business Seminar Series, recently initiated at the White Plains Performing Arts Center.

Paid Professional Ambassadors

Another initiative would be the creation of fulltime on-the-street, paid “Professional Ambassadors” for “High Pedestrian Traffic” areas in the city including the City Center, Renaissance Plaza, White Plains Hospital and the White Plains Metro Station, which he described as a very neglected area in terms of informing visitors to the city of what is going on in the city and where shopping, restaurants, and places to see.

Ammirato proposed the BID could also play a role marketing the city by “helping businesses move to White Plains, and serving as a “clearing house” for information on the city. He also wanted the BID to play a role in “Retail Recruitment” and to be “more aggressive recruiting quality retailers not yet represented in White Plains,” roles presumably traditionally centered in the Mayor’s Office.

Electric Signage

The BID also proposed electronic signage in the downtown area to promote daily events in the city, BID events, White Plains Performing Arts Center Events, even traffic flow information and public meetings.

Rita Malmud was the only councilmember to say this was a “good idea,” while the Mayor Joseph Delfino, dryly commented at one point, that the BID should ask him (the Mayor) for Free Parking, not Al Moroni the Director of Parking. The presentation was striking for the lack of questions asked by the council.

At the beginning of the administration, Mr. Ammirato explained that the assessment a property owner pays is determined by their gross square footage and their Linier frontage on the street added together.

He pointed out that by far the larger share is paid by the larger property owners siting the example below.

In seeking to expand the BID District, Ammirato said the goal was to bring the city’s major malls, The Westchester, Fortunoff, The Westchester Pavilion, and The Galleria into the BID assessment, as well as expand BID services to West Post Road, and southern Mamaroneck Avenue.

The plan apparently will be thought about by the Common Council, which is being asked to endorse the plan.

The involvement of the BID in marketing the city as proposed last night is a new role that would have to reconcile policies and responsibilities with the relatively low profile City Economic Development Department. The City Economic Development Department under the operation of Melissa Lopez operates on an interactive basis with commercial entities contacting the city, pursues strategies and creates events, and distributes brochures extolling the advantages of the city, and promotes the city in occasional one-shot campaigns. There is no overall city marketing campaign or direction such as “I love NY” for example.