Showalter, Aaron/NY Daily News
Downtown Jamaica has great transit and plenty of new creative residents — and now the city wants a developer to help grow local businesses.
Wanted: someone with big ideas and an empty building in downtown Jamaica.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation is looking for someone to create a space for freelancers, entrepreneurs and small business starts-ups in the world of fashion, technology, new media, culture and culinary arts.
“Downtown Jamaica has a lot of promise,” said EDC President Kyle Kimball. “It has a thriving retail corridor and it’s got great transit. It’s sort of the prime place for this to be successful.”
The agency would provide some start-up funding and operating costs.
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But the center would eventually need to sustain itself.
“We’re really interested to see responses for ideas we have not thought of,” Kimball said. “We want to leave it to the private market to be innovative.”
The area’s booming urban fashion industry might be a good fit, he added.
More than 40 years ago, downtown Jamaica was a premiere shopping and office destination in the borough. After decades of decline, the area has undergone a revitalization.
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“Artists are trying to move in as well as urban fashion people,” said City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans). “Having an affordable space for them is something that makes sense.”
Carlisle Towery, president of the Greater Jamaica Development Corp., said he also thinks fledgling fashion designers and artists are looking for a local hub.
“Jamaica is well-positioned to become the home of start-up culture, fashion and new media businesses,” said Towery.
Proposals are due Dec. 19.
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