Clean
Team

Clean & Welcoming Streets

The Partnership’s Clean Team keeps the neighborhood fresh and sparkling clean. Over the past year, Clean Team members have sanitized and disinfected streetscape items and power-washed heavily trafficked areas, including the Flatiron Public Plazas, NoMad Piazza, and Open Streets along Broadway, East 28th Street, and West 22nd Street.

Our largest core service will grow with the expansion of service boundaries beginning with graffiti removal, sidewalk sweeping, and installing and maintaining intersection trash bins. Further cleaning and painting of City-owned assets including bus stops, fire hydrants, mailboxes, and WiFi kiosks will follow.

Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, and NYPD’s Midtown South and 13th Precinct’s Community Affairs and Neighborhood Coordination Officers with real-time updates and information.

Hilton Douglas, Urban Pathways’ long-time Flatiron Housing & Outreach Specialist, helped hundreds of people secure safe, comfortable homes before retiring in December 2020. His compassion and empathy for those in Flatiron and NoMad set the foundation for effective, caring outreach services in the expanded district with both Urban Pathways and the City’s Department of Homeless Services.

outdoors with a view of the district’s namesake building at local favorites La Pecora Bianca, wagamama, and Num Pang.

The Partnership collaborated with local stakeholders on the initial projects of DOT’s Broadway Vision program, culminating in a new slow street from 23rd Street to 21st Street and a resurfaced and expanded plaza next to the Flatiron Building.

In addition to advocating for and securing pedestrian safety enhancements, the Partnership adds pops of color and public

seating to the neighborhood with seasonal plantings in tree pits, Park Avenue South median malls, hanging flower baskets, planters in strategic pedestrian areas, bistro tables and chairs on the Plazas, and our first-ever Street Seat unit. These amenities will soon be seen in our newly-expanded footprint.

The Partnership’s growing public art program recently included Studio Cooke John’s powerful “Point of Action” installation on both sides of 23rd Street that invited New Yorkers to contemplate the experience of seeing one another – and being seen – in a time of uncertainty. Digital art curated by Digital Art Month and MoMath provided a glimpse of an innovative range of possibilities.

In preparation for our expansion, the Partnership contracted with Gehl Studio, a leading urban planning firm based in Copenhagen, to better understand the public realm in the BID expansion area and critical commercial corridors.

holiday planning articles, and themed local business roundups. Partnerships with content creators on social media helped to further amplify our business support efforts. These channels also allowed us to quickly disseminate pertinent pandemic updates, including new funding opportunities, updated pandemic guidelines, and reopening metrics.

Leveraging earned media was key throughout our pandemic response. Working with our PR team at Anat Gerstein, we secured media exposure for area stakeholders via press releases and by responding to press inquiries. In FY21, we facilitated or participated in 74 placements on topics

related to the pandemic, the Open Streets programs, outdoor dining, our holiday programming, and other topics related to the district.

Our Retail & Hospitality Working Group met regularly via zoom to discuss challenges, opportunities for collaboration, programming and marketing campaigns, and potential opportunities for collaboration, campaigns, and support. These discussions directly influenced many of our programming initiatives, such as our our “Legal Aid for Commercial Tenants” webinar, and “All In Dining Deals” campaign.

The Partnership took advantage of the New York & Company (NYC & Co.) summer marketing campaign “All in NYC” to spotlight district business as they reopened last fall. Eye-catching red and black banners, bollard covers, and signage seamlessly integrated into the larger, citywide campaign, and signaled to residents and visitors alike that this neighborhood was All in on Flatiron, NoMad, and New York City.

Many dedicated sponsors continued to support our efforts in the district, including investments in colorful streetlamp banners, free public WiFi, the district map, as well as streetscape beautification, including branded trash receptacles and Park Avenue South Median Mall plantings. These investments help us maintain a high level of service, keeping the neighborhood as vibrant as ever for residents, the returning workforce, and visitors.

Ahead of our BID boundary expansion, our staff and board are reassessing our brand and positioning to better reflect a newer, larger Flatiron District. As we bring the full neighborhood of NoMad into the fold, we’ve tasked design and branding firms Pentagram and LaPlaca Cohen to help. We look forward to sharing the results as we launch our expansion services in early 2022.

tenants as they navigate our new reality alongside their building ownership.

As summer turned to fall, the Partnership conducted its “All in Flatiron: Dining Deals” campaign, with nearly 30 restaurants offering in-person and online promotions to bolster business as they reopened to diners. Aligned with NYC & Co.’s “All In” ad campaign, the program was shared through Flatiron's digital channels, circulated by local partners, featured by Instagram influencers, and picked up in
the press.

A fully remote Annual Meeting was held in September. In addition to a summation of the Partnership’s pandemic response and official business, the event featured comments by new NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) Commissioner Jonnel Doris, Baruch College President S. David Wu, and a presentation on reimagining the public realm by Flatiron architect firm A+i.

We took advantage of beautiful fall weather to bring a sense of liveliness to the streetscape with pop-up musicians for the Open Streets, a fall harvest photo backdrop in the plazas, and a celebration of Nina Cooke John’s holiday art installation, “Point of Action”.

Our “23 Days of Flatiron Cheer” holiday program focused on digital engagement to safely celebrate the holidays and drive local spending. The program was designed to be turnkey for local businesses with minimal cost, time, or staffing barriers. With messaging focused around supporting area retailers, restaurants, and amenities, the modified online program included holiday district deals, Flatiron gift guides, holiday meal kit roundups,

a virtual Flatiron holiday tour, and digital giveaways. This year’s program also included “Gifts for the Greater Good”, which raised over $21,000. The funds were spent at local retailers on hundreds of gifts for the needy families and individuals supported by Hearts of Gold, Harmonia Shelter and Urban Pathways.

In February and March, our Takeout Flatiron campaign encouraged folks to order takeout at district eateries and submit receipts for a chance to win dinner for a year. The campaign received 1,031 submissions totaling $35,717 spent at local establishments.

The program had high engagement on social media and included partnerships with prominent influencers. Takeout Flatiron also enjoyed earned media coverage from outlets like amNY, The Ticker, and Eater. Our collaboration with the dining app Seated broke their records for orders placed. Four winners were selected and provided with twelve gift cards each to spend at district restaurants.

In June, live events returned with our outdoor Flatiron Fitness series. To support the fitness industry, we hosted eight weeks of “Wellness Wednesday” classes with area studios on the Flatiron Plazas. Participants were asked to donate to the studios to secure their reservation. To maximize studio participation and bring patrons to area hotels, the program also included a hotel rooftop class every Tuesday morning.

As the City continues to progress in pandemic recovery, we are thrilled at the prospect of safely returning to more in-person events and gatherings in the coming year.

cell phone data help us manage and plan for the future. Data collected is discussed publicly via Quarterly Reports, Plaza Pedestrian Count Reports, an Annual Trending in Flatiron Report, a yearly Community Survey, and a real-time Retail Opportunities Map, all available at FlatironDistrict.NYC.

Throughout the year, the Partnership worked diligently to gauge the impact of the pandemic on our commercial district. As part of an ongoing recovery initiative, staff surveyed ground- and upper-floor businesses while monitoring storefront reopenings and return-

to-office timeframes. Tracking transportation metrics allowed us to note ebbs and flows alongside various pedestrian data sources. All of these metrics and economic data were parsed into clean, digestible reports and newsletters designed to keep the business community up to date on current conditions.

The Partnership team also engaged with various planning firms to conduct primary research and to use existing data to support a more walkable and greener neighborhood as part of an overall effort to encourage social distancing and a safe return-to-work. These collaborations resulted in a newly developed business survey aimed at commercial property owners, office tenants, and business owners, as well as the launch of a Quarterly Real Estate Snapshot Newsletter. This new targeted communication addresses the needs of our commercial business community and provides direct access to our quarterly reports, retail availability, and major news items that affect the economic health of the neighborhood.