The city is restarting the vetting process for a manager overseeing the massive $34 million Fordham Plaza, after the neighboring business improvement district could not agree to the city’s stipulations.

The Fordham Road Business Improvement District (BID), the largest BID in the Bronx, was on the cusp of signing a multi-year contract that would have allowed it to oversee Fordham Plaza, built in 2016 and complete with a café along with three vendor kiosks. The city Department of Transportation, which manages the plaza and was involved in talks, offered a tailored deal that included the city’s offer to fix and replace any defective parts of the plaza and picking kiosk vendors.

But a year later, the BID and the city couldn’t agree on the terms. Picking the BID appeared to be a natural fit given its proximity to the line of businesses along Fordham Road between Washington and Jerome avenues.

News of the fizzled deal, which was revealed the week of April 1, keeps the café and kiosks without any vendors even longer, wasting the prospect of a profitable vendor to occupy them. It’s unclear why the city held off on finding a partner for virtually an entire year, putting the plaza in a boondoggle state.

But costly obligations imposed by the DOT—including a $3 million general liability insurance, a liquor liability insurance of $5 million, general liability insurance, automobile insurance of $1 million, payment of utilities, complete legal responsibility of the plaza, and property insurance—drove the BID to reconsider signing a contract that could have stretched the BID’s financial resources.

“It was the hardest decision ever for me,” said Wilma Alonso, executive director of the BID, which collects roughly $900,000 from property owners within its BID that’s then earmarked for marketing and private sanitation services. Spreading its budget towards a city-owned property posed a gamble.

“There was no budge on the city in terms of tweaking the terms we had issues on, like the property insurance,” said Alonso. “I couldn’t validate the point of taking money out of our budget and investing it in a plaza where we couldn’t guarantee we would’ve been successful.”

Taking out a policy that satisfies the DOT would have been too costly. “Let’s say a car banged into one of the structures,” said Alonso. “They need to rebuild it to the standards of the city.”

The financial contract terms laid out in the DOT’s Request for Proposals (RFP), which wasn’t released when the BID first entered negotiations, apply across the board, and could be easier to accept prospective managers with a yearly budget that runs in the millions of dollars. This presents a less-than-lucrative proposal for the Fordham BID.

The DOT’s RFP shows any concessionaire with an interest in managing the plaza will need some deep pockets. That includes fronting costs for security, removing snow, installing energy-efficient lighting systems, landscaping, and fixing any wear and tear, except the concrete pavement.

Plus, a concessionaire’s vendors must also comply with other requirements, including submitting financial statements while also providing furnishings for the café that needs to first be approved by the DOT.

The construction of the Fordham Plaza is part of the city’s wider, more than decade-long effort to build pedestrian plazas along underused streets or commercial districts. Before 2015, the plaza was home to a daily flea market-style bazaar that seldom drew enough foot traffic. The construction of the plaza eventually attracted the homeless and panhandlers, becoming so much of a quality of life issue that the NYPD ultimately swept in to remove them, including the mattresses that were brought in.

Though any occupancy for the café and kiosks remain on hold, the BID can continue hosting yearly events at the plaza, thanks to temporary street permits it can file. A statement from the DOT agreed.

“DOT was in early conversations with the Fordham Road BID to manage the plaza, but ultimately could not reach an agreement. Fordham Plaza remains a public space and is available for anyone to host events through a [Street Activity Permit Office] permit. The BID continues to host successful events on the plaza and we believe they will continue to contribute to this important public space on Fordham Road,” read the statement, adding “the BID missed an opportunity to manage a newly reconstructed public space in a vibrant neighborhood of the Bronx.

As for the stipulations laid out in the RFP, the DOT said the terms are standard.

“This is similar to what we require for any applicant for a concession of this nature,” read the statement. “We are very confident that the offer of a long-term concession will attract many interested and qualified parties.”

Tours are now slated for April and May. The deadline for prospective managers to file is in June.

“We still have hope that if the terms changed that we can bid on that RFP,” said Alonso. “But unfortunately the terms have not changed since.”

DOT will manage the property until it finds a concessionaire.

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