BY FANNI FRANKL
The Noho Business Improvement District (Noho BID) has been working to reopen businesses in the Noho area after many were forced to shut down during the coronavirus.
Throughout the crisis, they have sent out emails to businesses giving tips on how to attract customers during the coronavirus such as updating business hours on their website, advising them to get into Zoom parties and Zoom home-bars. Noho BID works to get the bustling city back on its feet by giving promotions via social media to encourage people to enjoy the city again.
Cordelia Persen, executive director of the Noho Business Improvement District, detailed their responsibilities and how the coronavirus has affected businesses.
“We’ve seen restaurants doing outdoor dining and it’s a big challenge for the shortage of workers as well people coming to a stop,” she said in a phone interview. “We’ve been sending out emails to these businesses sending out the right info and done zoom calls with the idea to get them to share ideas with each other and help them prepare.”
They have also made it their responsibility to communicate with people on the street about their preferences. Along with this, Noho BID made it their goal to clean and “keep the street looking good to make it a pleasant place to shop,” according to Persen.
Showfields, a four-story retail concept store in Noho, is already open to the public. Showfields works to merge physical and online shopping by allowing customers to buy products in store on an iPad, with the option of having orders delivered to their homes within 1-2 days.
“We are excited to welcome back customers to our store,” said Tal Zvi Nathanel, chief executive officer and co-founder of Showfields. “While our physical doors have been closed over the past few months, we have been busy offering new innovations online and curating a new season in-store of the most interesting emerging and established artists and brands.”
To give customers safer ways to shop, they’ve provided a number of initiatives including connections with the Magic Wand app, curbside pick-up, private appointments and live video art curations.
“In the end there is just a new baseline of requirements for a new way to operate and I believe that every business will need to figure out how to adapt to a socially distanced world, but the opportunity is always to try to create magic,” Nathanel said in an email.
Showfields is also offering sanitizing stations on every floor, contactless checkout, curbside pickup-up, limited capacity, and social-distancing markers in their store.
Noho BID has already started to promote businesses that opened during phase four of the coronavirus reopening process which started on Monday in New York City.
Noho’s art galleries and outdoor museums should be open soon, although some businesses have announced they will wait longer. The Phase 4 reopening kept indoor museums in New York City off-limits for the time being.
