Solutions - Volume 7, Spring

BEDC Celebrates 25th Anniversary

BEDC will honor Richard Dwyer, executive director of the NYC & Vicinity Carpenters Labor Management Cooperation Trust Fund, and Mark O’Luck, chief executive officer of Spectrum Personal Communications Corporation and chairman of the BEDC board, at its 25th Anniversary Celebration from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 23, 2004, at the Boat House in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Longtime television journalist, Julian Phillips, who currently serves as the anchor for the FOX News Channel show, Fox & Friends Weekend, will serve as the master of ceremonies for the event.

For tickets or for more information about BEDC’s 25th Anniversary Celebration, please call 718-522-4600 ext. 10.

After returning to New York and joining the New York District Council of Carpenters Labor Technical College 11 years ago, Mr. Dwyer received a federal grant to train minority youth from targeted neighborhoods to become successful journey level construction workers. He worked closely with community-based organizations in Brooklyn, including the Magnolia Tree Earth Center, Fifth Avenue Committee, El Puente, Saint Nicholas Housing Developers, and Cyprus Hills Community Development Corporation, who, as subcontractors on this grant recruit and provide social service support for the young people. These grants have provided 10 years of training, whereby, hundreds of young people from Brooklyn have become union construction workers in a wide variety of trades.

Recently, Mr. Dwyer has taken this community concept one step further by urging housing developers and public agencies and politicians to see neighborhood economic development as more than bricks and mortar, but also as an investment in the members of their communities by requiring State Approved Apprenticeship Programs in publicly funded construction projects.

Mr. Dwyer also has worked successfully with the New York City Housing Authority to provide career path construction jobs for residents in return for NYCHA requiring successful bidders to participate in State Registered Apprentice Programs. He has worked diligently to introduce minority contractors to step up and become signatory contractors with construction unions to help grow their business. In addition, he has spearheaded the Small Contractors Assistance Program, which trains any interested individuals on how to start and develop construction companies.

For the past four years, while continuing to focus on community development, which is a personal project for Mr. Dwyer, and acting as the executive director for the NYC & Vicinity Carpenters Labor Management Cooperation Trust Fund, Mr. Dwyer has used his knowledge, experience, and a wealth of resources to continue to guide the Carpenters Union in its quest to fulfill its vision of increasing the market share for signatory contractors and providing good paying jobs to all carpenters in New York City.

Mr. Dwyer has an Ed.D in Labor Studies from Rutgers, is the author of two books on labor education and numerous articles on a variety of subjects including worker safety, and has worked on numerous committees establishing the standards used by OSHA in lead base paint issues.

Mr. O’Luck founded Spectrum Personal Communications Corporation, a business consulting firm, in 1994. Since then, Mr. O’Luck has been at the forefront of providing major corporations and government agencies with creative approaches in developing multi-million dollar projects in local communities. Spectrum also provides government/public relations, D/M/WBE Business Programs consulting, marketing, strategic planning, business development, workshops/conferences, and content development. Prior to starting Spectrum, Mr. O’Luck in 1987 cofounded and served as president of SBMA, Inc.

After earning a B.A., from Norfolk State University and doing graduate work at N.Y.U., Mr. O’Luck served as a senior management consultant and business consultant with several major corporations, including ITT. Mr. O’Luck also has taught courses in business management as an adjunct professor at New York University. Mr. O’Luck is just as committed to enhancing the quality of life in the New York metropolitan area as he is to advancing the cause of small, minority, and women-owned businesses. He is an active member of many boards, organizations, and committees. In 2003, Mr. O’Luck founded the Minority & Women Business Advocacy PAC, a minority/women business political action committee. In addition to serving as chairman of the BEDC board, he is a director of Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service, and former vice chairman, board of directors of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and regent, Long Island College Hospital, and a director of the Brooklyn Heights Association.

Mr. O’Luck is a permanent member of the Kings County Overall Economic Development Planning Committee, and has previously served as a member of the NYS Public Service Commission Consumer Advisory Council, and ConEdison Customer Advisory and Independence Community Bank Business Advisory Boards.

In 2003, the Guy R. Brewer United Democratic Club gave Mr. O’Luck its Community Service Award for his success in involving the community on the AirTrain and AirTrain Terminal @Jamaica Station projects. In June 1992, Mr. O’Luck gave the commencement address and received a Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from St. Joseph’s College. The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce presented Mr. O’Luck with its Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award in 1991.

He is often featured in the local media and on April 4, 1993, NY Newsday featured Mr. O’Luck in the Dr. M. L. King, Jr. 25th Anniversary Special issue. Mr. O’Luck is frequently called upon as a guest speaker at corporate, government and civic functions. In addition, Mr. O’Luck has written numerous business articles on issues important to small, minority, and women-owned businesses, and is referenced in publications on these issues.

Mark O'Luck

Richard Dwyer

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Bazaar Helps Entrepreneurs Sharpen Marketing Skills

Elaine A. Wilshire, owner of Elan-Sa International Handbags, received several orders for her custom-made handbags at BEDC’s St. Patrick’s Day Bazaar.	At BEDC’s St. Patrick’s Day Bazaar, Susan Palm, owner of Kensington Gardens, was promoting her services as a designer of container gardens by selling plants.
Stanley B. Chambers, president and CEO of Stanley’s Place, displays jackets, t-shirts, and hats that promote the Negro Baseball League. Mr. Chambers took BEDC’s entrepreneur training class.	BEDC graduate, Tonya Dyce, owner/artist of Painted Threads, sold one of a kind bookmarks, cards, and wall hangings she designs using fabric and paint, a process that takes three days to complete.

Graduates of BEDC’s entrepreneur training programs sharpened their marketing skills and got hands-on experience by selling their products and services directly to consumers at BEDC’s St. Patrick’s Day Bazaar.

“We know it’s important to do the training component, but the acid test is how they sell their products and how they interact with the public,” said Marjorie Schulman, BEDC coordinator for the event. “It’s one thing to learn about marketing in the classroom and it’s another to be out selling to the customer.”

Participants in the indoor market, held at St. Francis College on March 17, ranged from experienced business owners who graduated from BEDC’s training programs several years ago to recent graduates who were selling for the first time. One of a kind handbags and handmade pillows, plants in containers, natural oils, perfumes, and lotions, fabric art, wood bowls and vases, and artistic t-shirts were among the products offered for sale. In addition, other entrepreneurs promoted their professional services, and businesses and government agencies that cater to small business owners provided information
about the services they offer entrepreneurs.

“The people who have come here have been very responsive,” said Susan Palm, owner of Kensington Gardens, who was promoting her services as a designer of container gardens by selling plants. “The BEDC class has been wonderful. It really gets me organized. I was able to get my business plan done, and this event has helped me organize my marketing literature.”

Elaine A. Wilshire, owner of Elan-Sa International Handbags, received several orders for her custom-made handbags at BEDC’s St. Patrick’s Day Bazaar. Before starting her business a year and a half ago making handbags, pillows, and accessories, Ms. Wilshire, of Park Slope, worked in a hospital. She took BEDC’s entrepreneur training class to learn how to create business cards and brochures, understand accounting, and network with other business owners.

Another BEDC graduate, Tonya Dyce, owner/artist of Painted Threads, has a background in fashion design from Parsons and left her job with the city to run her business full time. Ms. Dyce, of Fort Greene, sold at the bazaar the one of a kind bookmarks, cards, and wall hangings she designs using fabric and paint, a process that takes three days to complete. “It’s labor intensive, but I’m loving it,” she said. Ms. Dyce is now selling her art in retail stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan, on the street in Soho, at craft fairs like the Fulton Art Fair and Atlantic Antic, and directly through her Web site, www.paintedthreads.com.

Stanley B. Chambers, president and CEO of Stanley’s Place, took BEDC’s entrepreneur training class several years ago to learn how to develop a business plan. His store on 5th Avenue in Park Slope features jackets, t-shirts, hats, and other memorabilia from the Negro Baseball League, and he also sells at street fairs, festivals, and at special events like the St. Patrick’s Day Bazaar. “The purpose is to promote the history of the Negro Baseball League as well as sell merchandise,” he said.

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Business Loans Offered to Entrepreneurs with Disabilities

Loans to entrepreneurs with disabilities are now being offered by BEDC’s lending arm, the Regional Economic Development Assistance Corporation (REDAC), according to Joan Bartolomeo, BEDC president.

“These loans will put BEDC and REDAC at the forefront of working with disabled individuals to help them pursue their dreams of self-employment,” Ms. Bartolomeo said.

Initially, the loans will be offered to BEDC’s clients who are participating in its LAUNCH Program, which provides entrepreneur training to individuals who have a mental health diagnosis. When BEDC introduces an entrepreneur program for the physically disabled in the near future, clients from that program also will be eligible to borrow from the loan fund.

Community Capital Bank is providing funding for the loans through a line of credit to REDAC, and a grant from the Abilities Fund is financing a loan loss reserve fund to mitigate the risk.

“Individuals with disabilities typically don’t have a long work history and may have credit issues because of their disability,” Ms. Bartolomeo said. “Traditional banks often are unable to provide loans. However, the grant from the Abilities Fund for a loan loss reserve fund will make these loans possible.”

The Abilities Fund is the first and only nationwide community developer targeted exclusively to advancing entrepreneurial opportunities for Americans with disabilities. It delivers training, technical assistance services, and advisory supports to individuals with disabilities and the organizations that support them, and helps entrepreneurs obtain the funding they need to launch or grow a small business. More information is available at www.abilitiesfund.org.

Community Capital Bank, New York’s first community development bank, specializes in providing banking services to individuals, nonprofit organizations, small businesses, developers of affordable housing, real estate entrepreneurs, and construction firms in all five boroughs of New York City. More information
about Community Capital Bank is available at www.communitycapitalbank.com.

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Initiative for a Competitive Brooklyn Identifies Four Industry Clusters

Four Initiative for a Competitive Brooklyn teams made up of local industry leaders are currently analyzing four dominant economic clusters in Brooklyn to identify ways to increase the productivity and competitiveness of businesses within these clusters so that firms in the borough can offer better, higher paying jobs.

The four sectors—health services; processed food; hospitality, tourism, arts and culture; and real estate, construction, and development—were selected based on their potential for future growth, including the number of individuals employed in each cluster, the cluster’s growth over the last 10 years and market share, and support from the government and private sector, said Joan Bartolomeo, president of BEDC, which is coordinating the plan with the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC).

“All the clusters are made up of industries that pay fair, living wages,” Ms. Bartolomeo said. “The goal was to identify those clusters that would have an impact on improving the life of lowincome people in Brooklyn and create a rising standard of living.”

Industry leaders, who are serving on four Initiative for a Competitive Brooklyn Cluster Action Teams, conducted more than 100 interviews to identify barriers to competitiveness in each of the four Brooklyn clusters, including market and labor force trends, and solutions to address these barriers.

The processed food industry was selected because of the growth in the ethnic and specialty food sector and the assessment that the increasingly diverse demographics in the city and country would create a broad market for the cluster’s products. Health services was included based on the large number of individuals employed in Brooklyn in this cluster. The hospital sector of this cluster in particular is struggling due to unfunded mandates, the introduction of managed care, and the increasing cost of care. The real estate, construction, and development cluster was included because the current construction boom in Brooklyn along with the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan is expected to create opportunities for the next 10 to 15 years. The goal is to help Brooklyn construction firms, which may be smaller, grow and gain greater participation in these projects. Hospitality, Tourism, Arts and Culture was selected because of the large number of cultural institutions, amusement parks, restaurants, and parks in Brooklyn, the current and proposed sports teams, and because of the high priority Borough President Marty Markowitz has placed on promoting increased tourism in Brooklyn.

After the teams complete their research and identify strategies for each cluster, a Master Economic Development Plan for Brooklyn will be formally launched next year through a partnership between government and the private sector, and a permanent structure will be created to ensure that the plan is implemented.

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BEDC Receives $10,000 Grant from AT&T

Mike McMillan, AT&T Sales Vice President - New York, fourth from right, presents a $10,000 check from the AT&T Foundation to Mark O’Luck, BEDC board chairman, fourth from left and Joan Bartolomeo, BEDC president, center,and the BEDC board.

The AT&T Foundation has awarded BEDC a $10,000 grant to support the organization’s operations, Joan Bartolomeo, BEDC president has announced.

“AT&T has played an important role in helping business owners in underserved communities secure the training and support they need to excel in today’s competitive environment,” said Mike McMillan, AT&T Sales vice president - New York, and a member of BEDC’s board of directors. “BEDC is an exemplar of a program that goes the extra mile to make a difference in the lives of others and improve economic development throughout Brooklyn.”

“We are very grateful to the AT&T Foundation for awarding BEDC a $10,000 grant and for the support AT&T is providing to the community,” Ms. Bartolomeo said. “AT&T is working with BEDC to bring the latest technology infrastructure to small businesses, and we hope we can help Brooklyn businesses stay ahead of the technology curve.”

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Twenty-five Years of Economic Development in Brooklyn

BEDC was incorporated in 1979 to help rebuild the economic infrastructure of Brooklyn following the
economic devastation resulting from the fiscal crisis of the 1970s and the 1977 blackout. Joan Bartolomeo, BEDC president since 1989, joined BEDC in 1984 and in the following interview, she reflects on the accomplishments of BEDC and the borough’s economic development achievements during the last 25 years.

- How did New York City conduct economic development in the 1970s?
When BEDC started in 1979, there wasn’t an economic development infrastructure in New York City. BEDC was created to help create this infrastructure in partnership with the City of New York and the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office. It was a time when dissatisfaction with city services was at its height
and, as a result, organizations like BEDC were formed to interface with the community and they became the human face for city government.

- What was Brooklyn like 25 years ago when BEDC was founded?
If you didn’t see the before in Brooklyn and are only familiar with the after, it’s hard to imagine what it was like before. Arson was persistent, even after the blackout. You could drive down whole blocks and see whole communities devastated. Packs of wild dogs ran through some neighborhoods. Every vacant lot was filled with garbage and illegal dumping.

- What role did small business owners play in the revitalization of Brooklyn?
Many small businesses fled New York City after the fiscal crisis and blackout. BEDC was charged with trying to develop a new merchant class by identifying entrepreneurs who could provide leadership in communities throughout Brooklyn. We organized around merchants associations and helped create a
new paradigm for economic development. We also created a place for business owners to go for help if they wanted to start a new business.

- How has the Brooklyn economy changed in the last two decades?
During the last 20 years, Brooklyn has experienced a major transition in its job base. Manufacturing has declined, but there has been a rise in an immigrant entrepreneur class that filled the void left by the declining manufacturing jobs. Business ownership also has become more diverse and today minority business owners are the norm. What we’ve seen in the last 20 years in Brooklyn is an economy that has evolved
into a more diverse economy with a growing service sector, a smaller but steady manufacturing sector, a rising health services sector, and a housing boom because people finally realized that Brooklyn had some great places to live and work and had great access to transportation.

- What do you see as BEDC’s greatest accomplishments?
As I look back, I’m proud of the fact that BEDC has contributed to the borough’s renaissance and that we were instrumental in creating merchants associations and local development
corporations that have, in turn, helped revitalize entire communities. I’m also proud of the fact that we continue to provide entrepreneurs with the tools to succeed and have offered training and financing to thousands of individuals who are currently entrepreneurs or who are seeking to gain financial independence through self-employment. Currently, through the Initiative for a Competitive Brooklyn, we’re seeking
to identify the industries in which Brooklyn has a competitive advantage and develop those industries in order to create high-paying jobs that will benefit everyone living and working in Brooklyn.

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Joan Bartolomeo, BEDC president, was honored by Con Edison on March 25 as one of its Women of Distinction. Pictured here are from left to right: Dr. Evelyn Castro, dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Education, Medgar Evers College; Antonia Yuille Williams, director of Public Affairs, Con Edison; Thomas Tetlow, general manager of Electric Operations, Con Edison; Devorah Halberstam, director of Foundation and Government Services, The Jewish Children’s Museum; Judith Zuk, president and CEO, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Joan Bartolomeo, president BEDC. In addition to Ms. Bartolomeo, Dr. Castro, Ms. Halberstam, and Ms. Zuk were honorees.

SOLUTIONS is published by BEDC
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SOLUTIONS
The Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation

Solutions is partially funded by the New York City Department of Business Services.

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Volume 7	Spring, 2004

A Publication Of The Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation