Park Slope's Mark Caserta To Lead Recovery In Chamber Of Commerce

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Park Slope leader Mark Caserta is taking his expertise beyond Fifth Avenue.

Caserta, who leads the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District, was tapped this week to become the new "executive director of business recovery" at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, bringing his decades of experience to all 62,000 small businesses and entrepreneurs in the borough, the chamber announced.

The new role will mean Caserta stepping down at the BID, where he's been at the helm for nearly a decade.

“It’s an honor to join a team that I’ve witnessed tirelessly working every day to bolster their neighbors’ small businesses, protect their community and evolve their services to comprehensively meet Brooklyn’s economic needs under enormously difficult circumstances,” he said in a release Tuesday.

“I’m eager to continue driving economic development in the borough I call home, where I’m raising my family and where I began my career as a small business owner and public policy advocate.”

The Park Slope BID — which oversees hundreds of businesses on the commercial corridor — will be led in the interim by Deputy Director Joanna Tallantire, who will likely take over the position permanently, BID officials told Patch.

The new chamber position comes as the organization expands its efforts helping small businesses recover from the pandemic with $1.3 million in new federal funding.

The federal grant, plus $337,710 in local funds, is expected to help support businesses create nearly 1,000 new jobs and retain 2,000 existing jobs across the borough, the chamber said.

“Brooklyn’s small business community is resilient and tough, and thanks to the $1.3M federal grant and Mark Caserta’s skillset for boosting small business growth, we’ll be able to offer more small businesses the resources, programs, tools and direct support they need to survive and continue creating jobs and opportunities in our communities," Chamber President Randy Peers said.

Caserta is no stranger to helping businesses through the woes of the coronavirus crisis.

On Fifth Avenue, the pandemic brought a record number of empty storefronts, a crisis that has since leveled out as a city-wide wave of entrepreneurship fueled new businesses fill up spaces on the corridor.

Some of the new businesses were driven to Park Slope in part by the BID's popular Open Streets program, which doubled daily revenue during the pandemic for many struggling restaurants.

“Mark Caserta has worked with his team to build the Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID into one of the most innovative, connected small business communities in New York City," said BID Board Member Kim Maier, who is executive director at the Old Stone House and Washington Park. "We are looking forward to continuing to work with Mark in his new role at the Chamber where his expertise will benefit small businesses throughout the borough."