By DAVID CRUZ

When Lisa Sorin was asked what the biggest benefit is for the Westchester Square Business Improvement District, she touched on its location. Lying on the outskirts of the Hutchinson Metro Center campus and so-called “Medical Mile,” customers regularly flock to the BID for its services. Visits are easy, thanks to the area’s nexus of public transit. 

The BID’s biggest migraine? Location.

But Sorin, the BID’s executive director, shrugs off any challenges by embracing them. She’s been searching to determine how the youngest BID can co-exist with surrounding competition. She’s looking inward, seeing the many benefits that can turn the BID into a major attraction in the east Bronx. 

Finding Its Way
The BID was legally established in March 2012, making it the youngest BID in the borough. Forming a cone-shaped district that begins on Westchester and East Tremont avenues, the BID stretches to Williamsbridge Road and Lurting Avenue. The BID may be two years old but Sorin is already thinking years ahead, projecting a profitable outcome, thanks to data gathering and a propensity to home in on the BID’s services.

“This should be a place where we cater to a very distinct audience of downtown main street, the little suburb in the Bronx,” said Sorin, a personable BID manager akin to the familiar, loyal face seen in the neighborhood. She’s the person likely to speak to a fellow neighbor while waiting at the checkout aisle. She’s likely done it before. After all, she’s a BID shopper.

“Walgreen’s, of course, is top of my list,” said Sorin. “ABC covers all my knickknacks and week to week the [Key Food] is probably where I do 80 percent of all my shopping.”

Business matters are nothing new for Sorin. After working at a waste management firm, Sorin served as the first female president of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, the go-to group for business matters.

A Neighborhood BID
Indeed, a neighborly feel sweeps Westchester Square, home to 156 stores from both the independent and big chain level. Property managers, 57 in all, agreed to paying the BID’s assessment fees following five years of persistence by merchant stakeholders.

“BIDs give a sense of ownership, and instead of working with the bureaucracy of the entire borough, owners have somewhere to go” said Sorin. She largely credits small business mogul John Bonizio, owner of the BID’s MetroOptics eyeglass clinic, for convincing property owners to give the BID its blessing.

“John Bonizio is the passion,” said Sorin. “[He’s] the voice, the ‘I’m not giving up, to hell with everybody else. We got this. We can make this into something.’ He’s loyal, he’s passionate, he’s infectious.”

Bonizio teamed with fellow merchant Joe Regina, employed with the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, to work the phones and sort through the paperwork. The work paid off–Bonizio now serves as the BID’s chair. With an established BID, perks such as daily sanitation cleanup, marketing services, and special events have been incorporated, serving as tools to lure the 80,000 shoppers into BID stores.

Gathering Intel
Sorin has begun a data collection blitz, learning the needs and wants of the BID to help refine its identity. She lucked out through a retail attraction grant from the city’s Small Business Services, used to craft a survey in search of that want.

Results showed specialty and children’s stores were in order for families. Sit down eateries are also in demand, according to Sorin. Makes sense, given the thousands of hospital employees along Medical Mile who work just a stone’s throw from the BID.

Restaurants, Sorin believes, can help distinguish the BID. Two new restaurants are slated to open its doors, complementing Kai Sushi Asian Fusion, a revamped eatery that opened in January.

Historical Location
History breathes in the BID. Sorin prides herself on this, recounting how soldiers under George Washington held the fort by nearby Westchester Creek, back then surrounded by farmland, during a key battle in the Revolutionary War. To Sorin, the battle exudes the neighborhood’s relevance. “The great last line within the Bronx Historical Society page was some people can actually say that Westchester Square helped keep the independence of America,” she said.

It’s a battle that eventually paved the way for commercial vitality.

At the epicenter of the BID is Owen Dolen Park, a diamond-shaped green space recently spruced up, thanks to $5 million earmarked from Councilman Jimmy Vacca and Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. The park has been central to some of the BID’s special events, including “Fair @ the Square,” deemed the most high-profile venue.

“On a sunny day, 5,000-plus people can walk through here with the fair,” said Sorin.

But neighborhood demographics have also molded some of the BID’s events. The “United Nations,” as Sorin nicknames the neighborhood within the BID, inspired the first Bollywood event. The end results translated to greater exposure in a BID.

Outside Competition
And though the BID draws its profit from its consistent foot traffic, a major transportation hub, and neighborhood fixtures, major conglomerates have been settling just near the BID’s borders, jeopardizing momentum. In the southeast, a Target retail store and an outlet mall akin to a Woodbury Common is under construction. To the north, Bay Plaza Mall enters its last phase of expansion, slated to include a Macy’s department store.

Being sandwiched between powerhouse retailers can appear overwhelming, but Sorin has been in the business world long enough to see resolutions ahead. “Our target audience is not those who go to Target or Macy’s,” said Sorin. “Our target audience is people who can take a stroll down a wonderful street, have what they need to shop.”

The challenge is just one aspect to Sorin’s hectic schedule, also juggling several board of directors seats. Should the dust settle, Sorin hopes for some downtime.

“Hopefully,” she said, chuckling.