By David Cruz

To manage a merchants association, one has to think like a merchant. 

And for Nancy Fernandez, the relation certainly suits her. After all, Fernandez is not only president of the burgeoning Kingsbridge Road Merchants Association (KRMA), a group representing 269 businesses, but she’s also a neighborhood businesswoman. For the past decade, Fernandez has been entrenched in the community, working as the owner of Divino Pharmacy. For the past three years, she’s spent time putting KRMA on the map.

“This is more like my home,” said Fernandez, speaking to the Norwood News from her store along East Kingsbridge Road.

Fernandez is not new to the world of business, having come from a family of business owners that set up shops in Manhattan and other parts of the Bronx. Fernandez’ store opened as a variety store, selling handbags, sunglasses and perfumes. She later phased in a drug store, seeing a need, despite a local Duane Reade nearby. Fernandez is not one to feel intimidated, fueled by her need for a challenge.

“I do Flavor RX that kids get medications with different flavors because they don’t have that option at Duane Reade or CVS,” she said. 

A Neighborhood Ripe For Change
Her business is part of the hodgepodge of eateries, clinics (it has an animal hospital), and variety stores flank Kingsbridge Road, a working class neighborhood between the Grand Concourse and Sedgwick Avenue. In the middle of the corridor is the Kingsbridge Armory, now prime for change after developers won a bid to repurpose it into the world’s largest skating arena.

Activity following the City Council vote in favor of the rink last year has remained largely flat, though once built it’s presence could elevate the association’s prowess.

Analysts have long predicted major changes for the corridor given the socioeconomic status linked to figure skating and hockey. The facility is likely to attract a more affluent clientele, likely triggering an exodus of mom and pops unable to pay rents. 

Seeds of Gentrification
Landlords have indeed been jockeying to take advantage of this new wave of customers by refusing to renew lease agreements to longstanding business tenants. The plan would be to displace businesses with more affluent line of stores, changing the overall working class neighborhood.

“It’s upsetting because this is where everybody gets their bread and butter, but it’s something that no one can do anything about,” said Fernandez. “Unless they buy the building.”

But Fernandez, a flexible pragmatist, intends to stick around for the long run, hoping to see cleaner and safer streets. As an association, it’s tried, but as Fernandez put it, “we can only do so much.” 

The Road To A BID
An association usually serves as a prelude to a business improvement district, an ad hoc city agency funded by BID assessments agreed upon by property managers. The BID process can take years depending on how well associations are able to round up a majority of property owners willing to become a BID.

Assistance has come from the Mosholu Preservation Corporation, the neighborhood nonprofit that helped secure grant funding for the association several times, though Fernandez credits plenty of the legwork to her vice president, Christian Ramos, and treasuer, Carlos Nieves.

But through MPC, the association filed incorporation papers last year, furthering the association’s goal of formalizing into a BID. These days, the association is exploring a BID Express, which offer cleaning and other BID-forming services.

It’s only in line to self-promote. As has been the case for the past summers, the association will once again present the Unity in the Community Festival on June 21, designed for merchants to showcase their merchandise on the streets.

“It’s a great way to bond everybody together and have a great day for the merchants and the community,” said Fernandez.

There is extra work in organizing an association that’s simply all volunteer. But Fernandez doesn’t mind. Her ingredients to seeing the association clear a pathway to a BID are “time and dedication.” It’s her advice to other commercial corridors looking to organize.

“It’s going to take people to come in to try and see your vision as well,” said Fernandez. “And from there things start forming.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.