QUEENS — The director of the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District, who helped attract new retailers to the neighborhood and beautified local storefronts, is leaving for the MTA.
Simone Price, who led the BID for seven years, will become the MTA's assistant director of government and community relations, she said.
"After seven wonderful years with the Sutphin Boulevard BID, I am "BIDding" farewell to an experience that I will cherish forever," she wrote in an email to local leaders and business owners.
The BID represents more than 130 businesses located on Sutphin Boulevard between Hillside and 94th avenues.
During her tenure, Price helped convince a number of new retailers that Jamaica “is a viable place to start a business,” she said, including Starbucks, which is slated to open its first store in the neighborhood, on Sutphin Boulevard, next year.
She also got a grant for local businesses to improve their storefronts and worked to keep the streets cleaner.
Price also managed to involve local business owners in more "community-minded" initiatives, she said, such as the Adopt-a-Family program, which collects toys for local kids who live in homeless shelters or whose parents are in jail.
But she said she is most proud that she was able to change the way local business owners perceive themselves and the neighborhood.
“I’ve gotten my business owners to understand the power of economics that’s right here in the community and what it takes for them to capitalize on the services that they are already offering,” she said.
Local leaders praised Price and her work for the community.
“Jamaica’s loss is the MTA’s gain,” said Hope Knight, president of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, a local nonprofit that has been working to bring new investments to the neighborhood. “Her dedication to the people who work, invest, visit and live on and around Sutphin Boulevard can be seen in the continuing progress. We wish her the best of luck."
The Sutphin Boulevard BID is currently looking for a new executive director.
