New York City is intent on keeping its half-a million-job manufacturing sector alive, well and contentedly inside the Big Apple.
      Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced a broad-ranging plan that will provide the city's industrial sector with both financial and logistical assistance. The initiative's subsidies certainly aren't huge. But the program's support could still register substantial impact, for New York's manufacturers aren't a deep-pocketed bunch. Small companies account for almost all of the city's industrial jobs.
      Bloomberg in his Jan. 12th State of the City address detailed his plans for diversifying the city's economy. "Diversification, though," he said, "also means industry."
      The full-blown plan surfaced on Jan. 19th, when the mayor and other city officials unveiled the details at the East New York neighborhood property that's currently occupied by Arc Metal Group, a local manufacturer that's expanding.
      "Today," said Bloomberg, "we are launching a comprehensive industrial policy that involves designing new business zones and creating new incentives to encourage long-term investment in manufacturing, warehousing and other industrial businesses throughout the five boroughs. Over the past half century, the city's industrial base has declined, along with many other American cities. But the industry remains a powerful engine of our economy. Its 500,000 jobs represent about 15 percent of our work force. We believe that our new industrial initiatives will stem this tide and grow our manufacturing sector."

The centerpiece of New York's manufacturing push is the newly created Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses (OIMB), part of the city's Department of Small Business Services. The OIMB will manage the creation of the city's new Industrial Business Zones (IBZs) and will and oversee aid initiatives that include relocation tax credits and employee-training programs.
      New York City is investing some $17 million in the manufacturing program through 2009, city officials said. During that same period, they explained, the Big Apple will provide about $9 million in projected incentives (at least if those subsidies are approved by this year's session of the New York Legislature).
      The OIMB's incentives will revolve around the IBZs. Those zones will replace the city's existing In-Place Industrial Parks program, an initiative that New York officials described as "outdated."
      The IBZs will be designated, city officials explained in a release accompanying the program's announcement, "based on existing land uses, the industrial character of the neighborhood, traffic patterns and Empire Zone boundaries." (Companies locating and/or expanding in a state Empire Zone are eligible for sales tax exemption and real property and business tax credits for 10 to 15 years.)
      The city has already identified some of the IBZs, which can be found at www.nyc.gov/html/sbs.

OIMB's help includes a tax credit for manufacturing companies that relocate to either an IBZ or to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. That one-time credit, city officials explained, would be geared toward firms that can't expand at their current locations. The subsidies would cover program-eligible relocation expenses of up to $1,000 for each relocated industrial job.
      Other program initiatives will expand the city's services in helping companies recruit, screen and train employees, said Hum. The idea, he explained, is to help industrial businesses reduce labor costs and access employee-training funds.
      The OIMB will offer $1 million in grants for industry-specific training programs or for special initiatives that bring services closer to industrial businesses, Hum said. The grants, he added, will also be offered for technical assistance to help industrial businesses access additional state training grants.
      Arc Metal, which makes retail displays, architectural metal detail and custom furniture, is taking advantage of the city's existing manufacturing support programs in its expansion. The city's Industrial Development Agency (IDA) is providing $730,000 over 25 years to assist the company in buying the building it now leases. The aid — which includes a mortgage recording tax waiver, and real estate and sales tax abatements — will enable the company to expand and remain competitive with companies in less expensive locations.

New York's industrial push also addresses a persistent beef for city manufacturing firms: Uncertainties about how present and potential future sites will be used. The Bloomberg administration is committed to not rezoning any part of an IBZ for residential use, the mayor said.
      "By making an ironclad commitment to maintain manufacturing zoning in key industrial areas and not permit residential use, we are responding directly to the concerns of many business owners who have articulated the need to make the city's zoning policies in industrial areas more predictable," said City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden. "We will plan comprehensively for these key industrial areas to make them stronger and more competitive."