Work With Us! 2023 RFPs

Downtown Jamaica Partnership is requesting proposals for supplemental sanitation services, light-based public artworks, and holiday lights. Please download the RFPs below.

HOLIDAY LIGHTS RFP

Date: August 14, 2023

Project: RFP for Holiday Lights

Term: Winter 2023 - Spring 2024

To: [email protected]

DJP Holiday Lights - Schedule

Date*Project Phase
Monday, August 14, 2023Request for Proposals Released
Friday August 25, 2023, by 5:00 PM EDTQuestions to the Partnership are due
Tues., August 29, 2023, by 5:00 PM EDTAnswers from the Partnership are due
Friday, September 8, 2023Submissions Due
Tuesday, September 19, 2023Selected Contractor notified
Friday, October 6, 2023Contract is signed
Monday, October 16, 2023Preliminary design proposal & technical review
Monday, October 23, 2023Finalize site(s) & design(s)
Weds, October 25 – Weds, Nov 8, 2023Fabrication
Thursday, November 9, 2023Fabrication complete; Secure City permits, approvals
Weds, November 15 – Mon, Nov 20, 2023Holiday Lights installation
February 15 – March 1, 2024Lighting Removal

*Schedule is subject to change

____________________________________

LIGHT-BASED PUBLIC ARTWORKS RFP

Date: August 07, 2023

Project: RFP for Light-based Artworks, 2023

Term: Winter 2023 - Spring 2024

To: [email protected]

DJP Light-based Artworks 2023 - Schedule

Date*Project Phase
Monday, August 7, 2023Issue Request for Proposals to Artist/Artist teams
Friday August 11, 2023, by 5:00 PM EDTQuestions to the Partnership are due
Monday, August 14, 2023, by 5:00 PM EDTAnswers from the Partnership are due
Sunday, August 20, 2023, by 5:00 PM EDTSubmissions Due
Monday, August 28, 2023Selected Artist/Artist team notified
Friday, September 8, 2023Contract is signed
Monday, September 18, 2023Preliminary design proposal & technical review
Monday, October 2, 2023Finalize site(s) & design(s)
Tuesday, October 3 - November 6, 2023Fabrication
Tuesday, November 7, 2023Fabrication is complete; Secure necessary City permits, approvals
Wednesday, November 15 – Monday, November 20, 2023Artwork installation
Week of November 20, 2023Project Unveiling
March 10 - March 15, 2024Artwork Removal

*Schedule is subject to change

____________________________________

SUPPLEMENTAL SANITATION SERVICES RFP

Date: July 31, 2023

Project: RFP for Supplemental Sanitation Services

Term: September 15, 2023 – June 30, 2025

To: [email protected]

Submission, Review and Selection Schedule (Important Dates)

____________________________________

We are Hiring!

The Downtown Jamaica Partnership (DJP) Board of Directors, in conjunction with Perch Advisors, is currently recruiting for the Downtown Jamaica Partnership’s next Executive Director.

Executive Director, Downtown Jamaica Partnership (DJP)

(Queens, NY)

The Downtown Jamaica Partnership (DJP) Board of Directors, in conjunction with Perch Advisors, is currently recruiting for the Downtown Jamaica Partnership’s next Executive Director.

About the Downtown Jamaica Partnership (DJP):

The DJP is a newly formed Business Improvement District (BID) from the merger of three local BIDs: the Jamaica Center BID, Sutphin Avenue BID, and 165th Street Mall. The Downtown Jamaica Partnership hosts more than 600 businesses, services the commercial area through thousands of hours of supplemental sanitation services, involves the community through events and promotional support for businesses, and advocates on behalf of neighborhood business owners. The combined assessment is $1.35MM.  For more information on the DJP, please visit www.jamaica.nyc.

About the Position:

The next DJP Executive Director is a strong leader who will enable the future BID to realize its next stage of impact - with innovation and execution of public space management programs and projects, sanitation and beautification, business advocacy, and marketing and events programs. The ideal candidate is a bold leader with a vision for Jamaica’s future as a commercial district that welcomes new visitors, shoppers, businesses and residents to its thriving business district. The next Executive Director will exhibit the qualities of a savvy relationship builder, innovative problem solver, dynamic manager, and inclusive leader.

The Executive Director will report directly to the Board of Directors and be responsible for the overall leadership and direction of the DJP with the following skills:

DJP Leadership, Management, and Administration

Relationship Management

Fundraising

Board of Directors and Stakeholder Engagement

Business Advocacy

Marketing/Promotion/Events

Experience and Qualifications Requested:

This is a full-time position with flexibility. Occasional nights and weekends are required.

Salary range: $125,000 - $150,000 annually depending on experience. Benefits package including generous PTO and health insurance available.

How to Apply:

No phone calls, please. Email your resume, cover letter with salary expectations, and a relevant writing sample to: [email protected]. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Only qualified applicants will be contacted. Please do not contact the DJP office directly regarding this employment opportunity.

The Downtown Jamaica Partnership is an EEO employer committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Locally-based Southeast Queens candidates are encouraged to apply.

Job Opening Date: June 9th, 2023

Job Closing Date: July 12th, 2023

Anticipated Start Date: Summer - Fall 2023

Jamaica’s Three Downtown Business Improvement Districts are joining forces!

To streamline services, reduce unnecessary administrative overhead, maximize efficiency and better serve our business community, Jamaica’s three downtown BIDs are joining.

How? In June of 2022, City Legislation was passed to create one singular business improvement district for downtown Jamaica. One nonprofit organization will administer services within the newly-united district. This organization will have a Board of Directors comprised of local property owners, businesses, residents, and City-appointed officials as dictated by local NYC Business Improvement District (BID) Law.

When? Right now! The legislation will go into effect on 1/1/23 and the prior BID boundaries will dissolve. NYC’s Department of Small Business Services (also known as SBS - the City agency that creates and oversees the City’s BID network) will be assembling a Board of Directors. SBS will assist this new Board through the process of developing bylaws, a new budget, and program priorities to benefit the business district.

For more information on this process and SBS’s timeline, please contact the agency directly here.

Who is Providing Supplemental Sanitation? Sutphin Boulevard BID now holds the current City contract with SBS to provide supplemental Sanitation Services on Jamaica Avenue from 169th Street to Sutphin Boulevard and on Union Hall from Jamaica Avenue to Archer. Contact Sutphin Boulevard BID for more information: www.sutphinblvdbid.org.

How Can I Stay Connected/Learn More? More information will be shared as it becomes available.

A Fond Farewell to Trey Jenkins: A Special Note From Our Executive Director

Today our staff says a fond farewell and sends our very best wishes to our teammate and friend, Trey Jenkins, who has accepted the position of Executive Director of the 161st Street Business Improvement District in the Bronx. His last day will be today.  For three and a half years, Trey served our business district as the Director of Marketing and Business Services. In this role, he was the primary point of contact for our business community, oversaw our social media, managed our website, and helped launch several new community events, to name but a few responsibilities.

When our organization was awarded a Strategic Impact Grant by New York City's Department of Small Business Services to help neighboring businesses just outside of our BID Boundaries adapt to Covid, it was Trey who pounded the pavement, establishing relationships with hundreds of small businesses in a short amount of time, introducing them to available loans, grants and marketing opportunities available to get customer feet back in the door. Trey took it upon himself to not only serve the Jamaica business community, but to become part of the southeast Queens civic community as well, by playing active roles in our local community board district cabinet meetings, Friends of Rufus King Park and other neighborhood groups.

His dedication, work ethic, kindness, and charisma will be greatly missed by our team and the community both, but we know that the Bronx and NYC as a whole have much to gain in the years ahead with Trey's involvement and passion for economic and community development. Our Commercial Revitalization Project Manager Jahnavi Aluri and I remain at your service in downtown Jamaica. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our organization if we can be of help.

Sincerely,
Jenn Furioli
Executive Director

Valued Clean Team Member Froylan Tehuitzil

It is with great sadness that we are letting our Jamaica Center BID community know that one of our valued Clean Team members, Froylan Tehuitzil, recently passed away after a brief illness. Froylan worked in downtown Jamaica for many years and the mark he left on our community was profound. He was always present with a smile and a helpful attitude while providing one of the most valued services we offer, keeping the Avenue clean of litter, graffiti and illegal dumping. Many merchants knew him by name and frequently complimented his hard work, so much so that we recently recognized his contributions at our November Annual Meeting.
If you would like to honor Froylan, please consider contributing to the GoFundMe account set up in his memory by his family. We would also ask that you continue to pick up litter after yourselves and thank our other Clean Team members for their service when you see them on the street. We will miss Froylan deeply, but are grateful for the time he served as our colleague and friend. If you would like to contribute to Froylan’s GoFundme page please do so here.  

View the rest of our E-newsletter here!

'Tis the Season - Get Your Shopping Done....While Having Fun!

Join us Saturday, December 4 and Saturday, December 11 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout Jamaica Avenue for a new holiday event we are bringing to downtown Jamaica called 'Tis the Season! This event is designed to keep consumer dollars on Jamaica Avenue and to encourage shoppers to shop local this holiday season. There will be promotions that our small businesses will have for shoppers and our BID will enliven the sidewalk of our downtown with pop-up surprises ranging from fun giveaways, live music, a magician appearance and character photos with Jammy the Snowman and friends.

Activities Happening in downtown Jamaica on Saturday, December 4:

Below are the businesses that will be offering promotions at their locations this Saturday:

'Tis the Season Holiday Map
We're finalizing our 'Tis the Season Holiday Map and will update the final map on Friday, December 3 so that shoppers will know where to go to get some cool holiday giveaways and more on December 4 and 11.

Home Depot and Jamaica Center BID Partner to Decorate Small Business Storefront for the Holidays

Home Depot and Jamaica Center BID Partner to Decorate Small Business Storefronts for the Holidays 

Perhaps while walking down the Avenue you noticed that many of our small business storefronts have a little extra holiday flair this year. That’s all thanks to Home Depot, located at 92-30 168th St which partnered with our BID to add pizazz to the storefronts of 13 businesses. 

Earlier this month, a large team of volunteers from Home Depot, armed with strings of holiday lights, garlands of greenery, ribbons, and wreaths joined our BID team to visit Pretty Women (165-09 Jamaica Ave), MA Perfume (165-12 Jamaica Ave), Blue Angels Bridal (166-01 Jamaica Ave), Make Me Over Beauty Bar (166-11 Jamaica Ave), European Wax Center (166-16 Jamaica Ave), Don’t Panic (164-09 Jamaica Ave), DJ Electronics (161-11 Jamaica Ave), Hook & Reel Cajun Seafood & Bar (166-21 Jamaica Avenue), M&M Fashion (155-29 Jamaica Avenue) and Rincon Salvadoreno (92-14 149th Street) for an outdoor (and in some cases, indoor) holiday makeover. The team even filled an unsightly empty tree pit with a temporary holiday tree (we hope to fill the tree pit with a *real* tree later this year, thanks to the generous continued support of our tree planting efforts in collaboration with The Horticultural Society of New York by Council Member James Gennaro’s office).  

We’re grateful to Home Depot for its community-minded outlook. The store was helpful earlier this summer when we partnered with SEQ Clean-UpLinden Studios, and Cambria Heights Florist to beautify Parsons Public Space’s 39 planters by providing mulch, cleaning supplies, and leagues of volunteers to green the area. Now, in addition to their Holiday storefront efforts, Home Depot is also planning on participating in our ‘Tis the Season local shopping events taking place on Saturdays 12/4 and 12/11 with a hands-on activity table.  

View the rest of our E-newsletter here!

What a Difference a Bit of Green Makes!

This week downtown got a little greener. Last Saturday our BID planted dozens of bright yellow and red mums and ornamental cabbages and laid fresh mulch in the two tree pits in front of Beverly Hills Furniture (149-01 Jamaica Avenue). You may recall from past newsletters that these tree pits were previously empty without tree guards and compromised pits. Thanks to funding from District 24 Council Member James Gennaro’s office and partnership with the Horticultural Society of New York, we were able to plant two new downtown trees and install four decorative tree guards earlier this year. Saturday's fall flower planting (plant materials provided by a generous grant from JFKIAT) added the final flourish, beautifying a portion of this block for the better and enhancing the downtown shopper experience. This is just a taste of what we feel the entirety of Jamaica Avenue should look like. Restoring our tree canopy, beautifying ALL of our tree pits, and introducing a horticultural program that would delight shoppers, support businesses, and enhance our environment with seasonal plant displays would make a big difference in our downtown. For now, our team will continue making small, but significant changes such as these, with the hope that we will eventually, through sponsorships and government partner support, be able to grow Jamaica green!


On the same day of this exciting tree pit makeover, JBID partnered with Cultural Collaborative JamaicaFriends of Rufus King Park, and the Abuela Neighborhood Maintenance for ‘It’s My Park Day & Community Cleanup.’ We first cleared litter from tree pits, sidewalks and gutters on 163rd Street (mid-block parking garage) to Jamaica Avenue, filling dozens of trash bags and continuing our commitment to providing shoppers a positive first impression of our shopping corridor the minute they descend from the parking lot or subway. Then we planted hundreds of tulips and daffodil bulbs at both entrances of Rufus King Park and in front of King Manor Museum. Below are some photos from this past weekend. We look forward to bringing three more cleanup days to downtown Jamaica in the coming months! Thanks to JFKIAT’s grant, we were able to purchase all cleaning supplies and additional tulip bulbs and daffodil bulbs to supplement bulbs provided by NYC Parks and the amazing Friends of Rufus King Park. 

View the rest of our E-newsletter here!

Farewell to Alba, our CUNY Service Corps Intern

Over the past six weeks you may have seen a friendly new face downtown working on behalf of our Business Improvement District. Alba M. came to us as a CUNY Service Corps student through an internship program designed to help New York City’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Building on CUNY’s history of service to New York City, the CUNY Service Corps creates opportunities for students, faculty, and staff at the university to work on projects that improve the City’s short and long-term civic, economic and environmental sustainability. 

Over her six-week placement, Alba helped monitor and address streetscape and quality of life issues. She translated many of our business communications materials into Spanish, updated our downtown business directory and vacant storefront list, distributed information about new merchant safety programs and the proposed Jamaica Avenue busway to all of our storefronts, collected pedestrian counts, solicited public feedback on desired streetscape and beautification enhancements downtown, and undertook a comprehensive survey of all tree pits along our 30 block faces. Before she departed, our Executive Director, Jenn Furioli, took a moment to catch up with Alba about her experience: 

Jenn: We’re so glad to have you here, Alba! Tell us why you wanted to participate in CUNY Service Corps?
Alba:I wanted to do something with my time this summer and when the opportunity to work with CUNY Service Corps became available I jumped at the chance as way to get work experience and get to know New York City.
What have you learned about Business Improvement Districts and the kind of work we do? 
Alba: Before I started this position, I didn’t know what BIDs were. Now when I walk down the street in my own neighborhood, I notice if someone is cleaning the street and look for their uniform. I try and figure out if other neighborhoods I visit have a BID. I notice things like the cleanliness of the street, or items that need to be reported to 311.
Jenn: Yes, that’s an occupational hazard of working in our industry. One’s ability to walk down the street and not obsessively notice things like cleanliness, overflowing trashcans or items necessitating a 311 call is forever altered. I think you may end up being a BID Director in the future. But if that isn’t your chosen career path, what else interests you?
Alba: I’d actually like to join the police force and become a detective.

Thanks, Alba, for your service to the Jamaica Avenue community! We were lucky to have you as part of our team, and we appreciate the attentive efforts Jahnavi Aluri, our BID’s program manager, who has mentored and supervised Alba during her time with us. Stay tuned for a Day in the BID Life of article featuring Jahnavi in an upcoming e-newsletter.  

View the rest of E-newsletter here.

DOT Community Advisory Board - Jamaica and Archer Avenue Busways

On Wednesday, August 18 and Thursday, August 19, the NYC Department of Transportation will host in-person, outdoor, informational open houses in Downtown Jamaica to support outreach for the Jamaica and Archer Avenues Busway project. These meetings are open to the public and participation is encouraged. Please share this flyer amongst your networks.

Wednesday, August 18, 2021 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Location: Parsons-Archer Pedestrian Plaza (Parsons Blvd. at Archer Ave.)

Thursday, August 19, 2021 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Location: King Manor Museum, 150-03 Jamaica Ave., Queens

Please contact the Queens Borough Commissioner’s office at 212.839.2510 or email [email protected] with any questions. To request accessibility accommodations, please contact the Queens Borough Commissioner’s office by Thursday, August 12, 2021.

Don’t Miss These Great Events!

Downtown is bustling with exciting events this month, starting this weekend when Cultural Collaborative Jamaica’sJAMS Fest returns to the Ave! JAMS will be celebrating its 25th anniversary kicking off with JAMS Under the Stars at Rufus King Park tonight (Friday 8/6) from 6-10pm. Tomorrow (Saturday, 8/7) 11am - 7pm, JAMS Fest begins with a 10-block open air festival with entertainment, music, shopping and more. Follow #jamaicafestival2021. Our team will be present soliciting community input on beautification desires for Jamaica Avenue with an opportunity to win a $50 gift card to a local restaurant—so be sure to stop by!

Meanwhile, King Manor Museum’s (153-03 Jamaica Avenue) Hands-on History month continues, with a focus on curiosity cabinets (miniature early museums of the 18th century that helped early Americans learn about nature and culture). Join King Manor Museum in the making of your own curiosity cabinet. Learn more and register here

On Saturday, August 21, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning’s (JCAL) VITALS (a free outdoor health and wellness festival highlighting organizations and entrepreneurs advancing health equity amongst communities of color) will take place at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center (153-10 Jamaica Avenue). Enjoy live musicians from The Dream Unfinished and the Harlem Chamber Players. RSVP here

Speaking of live performances, we were pleased to sponsor and be in attendance at JCAL’s most recent Mic Drop last Friday which featured tap dancer and instructor, Omar Edwards and Carlos Noel, David Sincere Aiken and Lyle Omolayo at Parsons Public Space. Don’t miss the next Mic Drop which will take place on August 27.

View the rest of our e-newsletter here.

Coffee Break at The Avenue Café NYC

We are happy to welcome the new coffee shop The Avenue Café NYC to Jamaica Avenue! The coffee shop is located inside Jamaica Market (90-40 160th Street). They have all that you need from Stumptown Coffee, teas and fresh pastries including the Nutella Dream Cruffin and Bacon, Egg and Cheese Breaktarts. We caught up with the owner Stephen Kanhai to speak to him about his new place: 

Tell us what made you want to open The Avenue Café NYC?
I grew up and currently live in Jamaica, Queens.  I truly believe in the concept of “Bloom where you are planted.” I really love cafes where it’s not just another business in the community, it actually becomes part of the fabric of the community. Community is important to me! 

Is Avenue Café NYC a family business?
The Cafe is a family business. My wife and I have been dreaming of opening one for years! 

What’s a little-known fact about yourself?
I love farming and growing produce. 

What’s your favorite business on Jamaica Avenue?
Two businesses come to mind. Alexis Caribbean (In Unique Food Court) and Jamaican Flavors.

What business would you want to see on Jamaica Avenue?
I would love to see a sporting good store or a bookstore! 

How can people help or learn more about your business?
People can help by becoming customers and trying our delicious offerings! You can learn more about our business on social media. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @theavenuecafenyc! 

View the rest of our e-newsletter here.

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