Look Who’s Paying the Bills at the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership
When we first started putting together this site last fall, Alyssa and I spent a lot of trying to figure out just who, exactly, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership was.
According to the organization’s website,
The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP) is a not-for-profit local development corporation incorporated in the summer of 2006 in an effort to coordinate economic development activities in Downtown Brooklyn and ensure implementation of public and private development projects in the area. The DBP works in close partnership with the City of New York to:
- expedite design and construction of public capital projects
- facilitate the development of commercial and residential real estate projects
- create strategies for corporate recruitment and the reuse of undercapitalized properties
- advance the development of cultural venues and public space within the BAM Cultural District
- coordinate transportation planning initiatives
- spearhead an area-wide branding and marketing campaign
- improve area business conditions and quality of life.
The DBP incorporates the functions of four existing not-for-profit organizations providing economic development services within Downtown Brooklyn (Downtown Brooklyn Council, BAM Local Development Corporation, MetroTech Business Improvement District and Fulton Mall Improvement Association) and has an annual operating budget of approximately $8 million.
The DBP has a staff of approximately 25 and is overseen by a Board of Directors comprised of leaders from Downtown Brooklyn’s corporate sector, academic institutions and cultural community.
A little vague, right? And what about that $8 million budget? Only $2 million is coming from the City, and the BID budgets don’t add up quite that high. So who are the private funders? We placed some calls, but got no answers.
Well, we’ve gotten our hands on an internal email, dated August 16, 2007, containing a complete listing of contributors (after the jump) and amounts paid. We figure it’s in the public interest to know exactly who has been financing the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s activities, and therefore has former Bloomberg administration economic development officials at their disposal to advocate for their projects.
