By Courtney Dentch
Sutphin Boulevard business owners have a vision of their commercial strip, one where matching awnings and store signs invite visitors at two court buildings to window-shop along the well-lit street and a directory of stores greets airline passengers as they step off the AirTrain link from Kennedy Airport.
This image could become reality by next summer if plans to create a business improvement district stretching from Hillside Avenue to 94th Street move forward, said City Councilman Allan Jennings Jr. (D-Jamaica), one of the local leaders spearheading the project.
“It will be nice to be able to clean up the area, ” said Robin Eshaghpour, a co-chairman of the BID proposal. “We need a more uniformed appearance.”
The Sutphin Boulevard BID, which has to be approved by Community Board 12 and the City Council, will allow business and property owners to work together to improve their street. A steering committee made up of merchants and local leaders will manage the BID and decide which services will best benefit the area, said April Jones, a co-chairwoman of the project.
“Most of the people consider security the most important or sanitation,” said Jones, who runs Coleman’s Corner Daycare, at 90-16 Sutphin Blvd. “We have to get together and see what’s best for everybody.”
The BID budget is funded through dues paid by the member merchants, she said.
The current proposal is a combination of two separate plans for Sutphin Boulevard — one to the north, between Jamaica and Hillside avenues, and one to the south, from Jamaica Avenue to 94th Avenue, Eshaghpour said. The BID project for the north end began more than a year ago, while the south end started in the summer, Jennings said.
Jones and Eshaghpour believe the Queens County Surrogate’s Court at 88-11 Sutphin Blvd. and the Queens County Civil Court at 89-17 Sutphin Blvd. as well as the AirTrain will provide many new customers for the stores along the BID.
Jones, who along with Joy Tomchin, is leading the BID effort in the north end of the area between Hillside and Jamaica avenues is also hoping to draw other visitors to the boulevard, she said.
“We have so many people who use the courthouses,” Jones said. “We want them to come out for lunch and have benches to sit on and plants and hopefully utilize some of the shops.”
Eshaghpour, owner of Sutphin Properties Inc., is managing the south end of the proposal with property owner Clinton Graham, and he is hoping for a similar reaction from AirTrain riders.
The AirTrain light rail system was designed to link Kennedy Airport to downtown Jamaica and the mass transportation connections there through a terminal under construction at the corner of Sutphin Boulevard and 94th Avenue. The AirTrain was scheduled to begin runs to Jamaica in the spring, but the opening was postponed after a crash in October that killed the train operator.
“We want them to have a good impression when they come to New York City because the first stop is going to be Jamaica,” Jennings said. “We want them to feel good about coming to New York City.”
The BID may also help change Jamaica’s negative reputation as an unsafe area, Jones said.
“It has a sense of being a bad area, and that’s probably because of the way Sutphin Boulevard looks,” she said, citing poor lighting as a main problem. “We want to increase the people that come into the area after dark. A lot of people leave the area after 6 p.m.”
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 138.
