East 149th Street in the South Bronx is a critical commercial and transportation corridor facing dramatic economic development pressures while grappling with a changing retail environment, affordability issues for residents and business owners, and quality of life issues. To chart an equitable path forward through these conditions, the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (SoBro) retained Karp Strategies (with subconsultant WXY) to develop an Economic Development Opportunity Plan intended to create a vibrant, mixed-use corridor that fosters equitable economic growth and celebrates local culture.

Karp Strategies and WXY’s work focused on four areas of improvement: (1) enhancing perceptions of safety, (2) supporting retail growth, (3) expanding economic opportunity through business and institutional attraction, and (4) revitalizing a sense of place through catalytic site development along East 149th Street. We leveraged the client’s local expertise with combined insights from: market and industry/sector analyses; retail and real estate performance analyses; desktop research; interviews; best practices and CPTED analysis around public safety and quality of life interventions; and policy analysis of NYS and NYC opportunities that could be leveraged in this context to improve quality of life for residents and businesses.

The Economic Opportunity Plan detailed visionary and tactical strategies to achieve sustainable economic growth, catalytic development, and improved safety/quality of life along the East 149th Street corridor. SoBro will utilize the Plan to responsibly and realistically intervene and guide the future of East 149th Street.