Though federal and city officials officially cut the ribbon on Fordham Plaza earlier this month, neighborhood residents shouldn’t expect vendors to move into the enormous concession area and kiosks for at least a year.

The $34 million plaza in the largest transit hub in the Bronx includes a new bus depot, access to the Metro-North and a sitting area for pedestrians. The plaza also features a main concession area near the Metro-North stairways, and three smaller, newsstand-style booths, as well as a bathroom. The plaza could stand as boon for the BID, given the near 80,000 people who travel through the business corridor.

Daniel Bernstein, deputy director of the Fordham Road Business Improvement District, said the BID is finalizing their contract with the city that would allow them to maintain the space and secure vendors.

Bernstein said the shops are still under construction, and once complete, the BID will put solicit proposals to fill the space.

“One thing that is important is that we don’t want to take business away from anyone who is currently in the neighborhood or the BID. It’s a transparent process with the [request for proposal], we’ll go over all the responses and ultimately choose someone,” Bernstein said, adding a community meeting will likely be scheduled for public input.

“I’ll be worried if they open the same kind of business,” said Mostack Bhuiyan, who has owned and operated Nabila newsstand on the northeast corner of Fordham Road and Webster Avenue, across from the plaza and next to the Fordham Road Metro-North station.

Bernstein said he hoped new shops will offer more healthy food options.

“We have a lot of variety in terms of retail [on Fordham Road]–you can buy whatever you want–and hopefully people will able to buy things like smoothies, and we won’t just have fast food and burger shops,” Bernstein said.

A farmers market is in the works for the plaza, Bernstein said, drawing upon the successful food truck rallies the BID has hosted at Bryan Park.

To keep up public confidence, Bernstein said the BID is looking into temporary art exhibits to “put some life” into the empty spaces so that residents “don’t feel detached.”

“It can be seen as a negative thing in the Bronx, with a lot of people making comments that ‘this wouldn’t happen in Manhattan.’ I want people to understand these large projects take time.”

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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.