[Slideshow: Photographer Adi Talwar trains his lens on the Fordham Plaza area.]

The Bronx’s biggest Business Improvement District (BID) is about to get bigger. The Fordham Road BID is currently under negotiations to expand its territory to cover 1 Fordham Plaza, the giant building with eye-catching blue windows located on one end of Fordham Plaza.

Daniel Bernstein, the deputy director of the Fordham Road BID, said the expansion will most likely be finalized by July 2014. “We hope to be able to start providing marketing, promotion and sanitation services by next year,” he said.

The Fordham Road BID is a non-profit organization that focuses on sanitation, promotions and capital improvement projects for the Fordham Road area. The BID is responsible for keeping the streets clean and for the beautification of several underutilized sites in the area.

The BID also plans to add the recently shut down Cookie’s store property to its district. “What most people don’t know is that Cookie’s still owns the building.” explained Bernstein. “They are currently leasing it to the Burlington Coat Factory so we are in discussions with them to join us.”

The BID has currently been working on a huge project to renovate Fordham Plaza. Although Bernstein said that they obviously do not have lot of control over the construction, he added that he is looking forward to its completion, which will be in approximately two years. “It will definitely look a lot nicer than what it looks like right now,” said Bernstein.

Construction on the Fordham Plaza began in February and has recently moved into the BID’s territory on 189th Street between Park and Webster avenues. The traffic portion of the renovation is currently underway and should last about six months. After that, construction will commence in the interior of the plaza area.

Many residents did not seem to be very well versed on the project, but they were excited to hear about it. Mary Garcia, a mother of two, said she wanted the plaza to be more family-friendly and hoped that the renovation would deal with that.

Gregory Tejado was excited. “Maybe this means that the Bronx will finally be moving up!” he said, adding that he would love to see some trendy restaurants open up in the area.

But Elizabeth Miller, a woman who has lived in the Bronx for more than 30 years had some reservations.

“I just hope that the plaza doesn’t get too commercialized,” she said. “It’s great that it’s getting renovated, but I don’t want it to become some sort of strip mall.”

Most recently, the BID has been focused on wrapping up its successful movie night series. Last November, it won $26,000 in grants from a citywide BID challenge put together by the New York City Department of Small Businesses, which oversees the city’s BIDs. With that money, they sponsored four movie nights, with over 200 people showing up per event. The last movie, “Brave,” which will be shown on Sept. 6, was selected by a social media vote.

The Fordham Road BID is staying busy with several other projects including a big renovation in Bryan Park, which just received $2.5 million in grant funding.

CAP: A look at Fordham Plaza, which is undergoing a renovation and will soon be part of the Fordham Road Business Improvement District.
Photo by Adi Talwar