A third of Bed-Stuy’s storefronts are now empty: Report
The report by Bridge Street Development Corporation also found 70 percent of businesses saw a decrease in income last year
A study, months in the making, has revealed that a surprising number of storefronts are vacant along Bed-Stuy’s main arteries.
Around a third of the storefronts stand vacant in Bed-Stuy, according to a new study from Bridge Street Development Corporation. More than 300 merchants and 800 shoppers were surveyed along Dekalb Avenue, Bedford Avenue, Nostrand Avenue, Fulton Street, Tompkins Avenue, and Malcolm X Boulevard to assemble the report.
“It was pretty unique that we would get this opportunity to do a needs assessment in the midst of Covid, which had a profound impact on all of our small businesses,” Bridge Street Senior Program Director Oma Holloway told Patch.
And what the Commercial District Needs Assessment captured was bleak. In addition to the vacancy rate, almost 70 percent of businesses reported a decrease in income during the pandemic. A recorded discussion of the study’s findings, with Bed-Stuy’s Council Member Robert Cornegy Jr, is available to watch online.
This report is perhaps unsurprising a year into a global pandemic, though the Bridge Street Development Corporation didn’t directly link the two. Still, four out of five small businesses statewide reported that Covid had an overall negative effect on their businesses, according to a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.
These findings come as Brooklyn has received a glimmer of good news in that Kings County is set to receive $496.5 million in aid from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
