Brooklyn's Progress
August/September 2007

BY JILL SHEEHY

The New York City Council wants more business owners to learn about a little-known program available through the Mayor’s Office for Industrial Business and Manufacturing that will allow for businesses that qualify to tap into valuable New York State tax credits.

New York City businesses are collecting about $55 million in State tax credits each year as a result of the Empire Zone program, but to date, no business outside of an Empire Zone has been able to get designated a Regionally Significant Project (RSP).

To qualify, a business must be either:

• A manufacturer, creating 50 or more full-time jobs
• An agribusiness, high-tech or bio-tech company creating 20 jobs and making a $10 million investment
• A financial, insurance or distribution center creating 300 or more jobs
• A clean-energy research and development enterprise
• Other

And while “other” has yet to be defined by the state Development Corporation, local leaders want to see a promotional push for the designations.

Councilman David Yassky, who is also the chair of the Council’s Small Business Committee, said that his committee, which co-chaired the hearing with the Council’s Economic Development committee, wants to get the ball rolling on getting some RSP’s vetted as such.

“The City needs to do a lot more to publicize that incentive,” he said. Chambers of commerce can help, BIDs can help and professional organizations can help.”

One of the reasons for there not being more is the land – the sectors advocate for large usage and there is not enough to go around

Darryl Hollon, who is the Director of Industrial and Manufacturing Services with the Brooklyn Business Solutions Center, said the issue is often discussed at Industrial Business Zone meetings.

“The bottom line is that within the NYC’s five boroughs, factoring in the high cost of doing business in the City, we are hard-pressed to attract a manufacturer that meets the benchmark criteria to qualify for a RSP.”

“However,” he continued, “we have this unique opportunity through the Mayor’s Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses – with its sixteen IBZ’s located across NYC – to identify potential RSP candidates and promote the program vigorously.”

Replacing Manufacturing
One such parcel will be the Pfizer facility on Flushing Avenue in East Williamsburg. The drug giant announced the plant’s closure earlier this year, saying it expects to lose $14 billion in revenues as patents expire on many of its top-selling drugs, opening the market to their less-costly generic versions. When the company phases the plant out of operation in late 2008, some wonder what will become of the facility, which is 156 years old.

Councilwoman Diana Reyna, who represents parts of Williamsburg, Bushwick and parts of Ridgewood, hopes that since the site does not sit in an Empire Zone, a new manufacturing entity will move in, bolstered by the incentives available if designated an RSP.

She said that replacing the manufacturing loss would be good for the community.

“What happens to a community without good-paying jobs where there isn’t a ‘walk-to-work’ mentality is that people reevaluate the idea of staying - either as a citizen or a business in New York City - at all.”

For more information on the RSP designation, go to the Mayor’s Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses at www.nyc.gov/imb.