Downtown Brooklyn has long been shaped by the small business owners who invested in the neighborhood, built community, and stayed through decades of change. This August, we celebrated one of them with the co-naming of Willoughby and Duffield Streets as Ashok “Victor” Vora Way.
Victor immigrated to the United States from India in the early 1970s and established himself in Brooklyn. He began his career in Downtown Brooklyn working at a card store on Fulton Street before going on to build a family of businesses across the neighborhood.
Over the years, Victor owned and operated several Downtown Brooklyn businesses, including Hallmark stationery stores and Baskin-Robbins locations. His path as an entrepreneur was a family effort: speaking at a 2008 forum on immigrant entrepreneurship, Victor recalled how his brothers eventually joined him in business, allowing the family to pool resources and continue growing.
His commitment to Downtown Brooklyn stretched across decades and through a period of dramatic change for the neighborhood. In an interview with The New York Times, Victor reflected on his decision to stick with Downtown Brooklyn and his optimism about where it was headed: “I’ve paid my dues in downtown Brooklyn. Now it’s time to take the benefit from it.”
That faith in the neighborhood proved lasting. Victor eventually grew his footprint to half a dozen Downtown Brooklyn stores, and served faithfully on the boards of the Metrotech and Court-Livingston-Schermerhorn Business Improvement Districts for decades – a dependable attendee at meetings who brought a positive attitude and genuine interest in the wellbeing of the neighborhood. Today, his family continues his legacy through Concord Market on Tillary Street.
Victor passed away in 2023 at the age of 75. Friends, neighbors, and members of the Concord Village community remembered him for his generosity, warmth, and dedication to the people around him.
Now, his name has a permanent place in the neighborhood he spent decades helping shape. Ashok “Victor” Vora Way, at Willoughby and Duffield Streets, honors not only a beloved Downtown Brooklyn small business owner, but a legacy of entrepreneurship, community, and belief in Downtown Brooklyn’s future.
