The heart of Union City lies mostly in the small bodegas, restaurants and old family businesses that line the city’s Bergenline and Summit avenues. Many of these businesses are in need of new storefronts and marketing strategies. That’s why shop owners think that the city’s Urban Enterprise Zone, a program designed to help promote and better businesses in the city, should be more effective.
A resolution creating a new Urban Enterprise Zone Development Corp. board was passed at the Sept. 19 Board of Commissioners Meeting to help the merchants benefit from the program. The new board will consist of seven members, five members chosen by the merchants and two members appointed by the commissioners. Before that, the use of UEZ funds was decided by the city. Now, the city will still have a UEZ office with paid employees who carry out UEZ duties, but the board will decide where the money goes.
“The partnership that we are about to form with the city will be good,” said Peter DeGast, owner of the IHOP restaurant on 32nd Street and Kennedy Boulevard.
Solving the problem
DeGast and other business owners had already organized a working committee to try to organize the merchants; however, that committee has been stagnant for a while.
According to DeGast, the merchants’ original idea was to form a Business Improvement District (BID) that would have placed an additional self-imposed tax on the businesses.
“With the recent increase of property taxes,” said DeGast, “it wasn’t a good time to do that.”
After hearing the merchants’ ideas, the city decided to turn the UEZ over to them.
“Who better to run the program than the merchants themselves?” asked Public Works Commissioner Tina Yandolino last week. “They know what their needs are. They will have a great deal to say about the program.” The UEZ program was created by the state to help urban businesses. Businesses that apply and are accepted into the UEZ program can charge 3 percent sales tax rather than 6 percent, with the savings seen as an incentive to customers. In addition, the sales tax that is collected can go into the UEZ fund so it ends up back with the businesses.
The new board will have complete control over the UEZ money and where it is spent.
DeGast said that advertising, storefronts and security are the three main areas that the merchants feel need improvement.
“We felt that from a marketing perspective, more could have been done,” said DeGast. “The fa