FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

BEDC HOSTS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE

BROOKLYN, NY-March 2, 2001--One person's leadership and vision can lead to the successful development of real estate and small business in inner city neighborhoods, according to several speakers at the recent economic development conference, Brooklyn Neighborhoods: Big City Commerce, sponsored by Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation (BEDC). More than 300 people participated in the March 1, 2001, conference, which was held at the Brooklyn Marriott.

One of the speakers, Monique Greenwood, who is best known as editor-in-chief of Essence Magazine, has redeveloped an area of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. "I discovered Bedford Stuyvesant on a house tour," Ms. Greenwood said. "I decided I would make it my home and would have to do more than just live there…I wanted to serve an underserved neighborhood."

Ms. Greenwood's vision led her and her husband, Glen, to buy an 18-room Victorian mansion two blocks from their brownstone and turn it into the Akwaaba Mansion Bed & Breakfast. The bed and breakfast was created so that local churches, colleges, and residents living in the neighborhood would have a nice inn where their guests could stay while visiting Brooklyn. After the bed and breakfast opened, they realized the guests would need a restaurant, which led them to open a 72-seat café down the street.

Later the couple bought a nearby building with 150 building violations, financed the restoration, and rented it at affordable rates to local entrepreneurs seeking to open businesses that would complement the bed and breakfast and café. The new businesses include a bookstore, antique shop, and coffeehouse.

Ms. Greenwood said the result of this redevelopment has been the creation of a "village community." Now hundreds of children line up to visit her bed and breakfast on Halloween when the inn is turned into a haunted house and hundreds of neighbors participate in a tree lighting ceremony in the local park and caroling through the streets at Christmas. "I know that we've started something special," she said. 

Dawn Ladd, president of Aurora Lampworks, told of her vision of developing a building where artisans could work together under one roof. In the early 1990's, Ms. Ladd moved from New Haven, CT, to Brooklyn where she began operating her business out of a building in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge). 

She sold one business and started another in a building in which she shared space with a metal fabricator and blacksmith. However, the three businesses were unable to secure more than a one-year lease on a ground floor space in DUMBO, which led Ms. Ladd to begin looking at other neighborhoods where all three businesses could all operate under one roof. After searching for six months for a spot, she found a building to rent and renovate in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Since the move, a conservator and mold-making firm have joined her in the building.

"We are a restoration hub," Ms. Ladd said. "We have created a new model of being a business. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We share labor, expertise, projects, and clients. What's good for one is good for all."

Harvey Lichtenstein, chairman of the Brooklyn Academy of Music Local Development Corporation, outlined plans to make the area surrounding the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, a 24-hour cultural district in the borough. His vision is a mixed-use development with affordable housing, theaters, offices for arts organizations, and restaurants.

Robert Brandwein, president of Policy and Management Associates, encouraged community development corporations at the conference to partner with the private developers to bring private retail businesses into neighborhoods. He also suggested identifying government agencies, such as HUD, that provide a portion of the funding for development.

Another panel of speakers discussed Education and Skills Training Strategies, including Kris Palmer, associate director of the Bay Area Video Coalition in San Francisco, who summarized her program's rigorous 16-week program that trains low income people for high tech jobs as web designers, project managers, or programmers. She said that the average annual income of the participants when they enter the program is $14,000 and the average annual income when they are placed in jobs is $37,000. The organization has a 94 percent rate of placing students into jobs by training them on state-of-the-art software.

The keynote speaker for the conference, Roy O. Priest, president and CEO of the National Congress for Community Economic Development, which is the trade association for community development corporations, outlined challenges to neighborhood development.

He said the challenges include identifying affordable housing for residents priced out of neighborhoods because property costs have risen dramatically due to redevelopment efforts. Other concerns include the lack of capital due to bank mergers, how individuals receiving welfare will cope this year when they reach their five-year limit and see their welfare payments eliminated, the current layoffs and possibility of a recession, and the fact that most Americans don't have even $1,000 in savings.

Mr. Priest said the notion of faith-based organizations playing a part in the community is not new because faith-based organizations have been valued community development partners for years. He said the government's faith-based initiatives are "not providing new resources, but another level of demand for resources we don't have enough of already."

Rather than creating additional organizations to request scarce government funds, he said nonprofits should work together to develop strategies around building wealth and creating assets by encouraging savings and home ownership. "We need to stop competing with each other for peanuts," he said. "We need to work together."

Councilman Kenneth Fisher, who provided major funding for the event, kicked off the program with a presentation on Brooklyn: An Economic and Cultural Overview. "Brooklyn is poised to make the transition from the industrial age to the information age," Councilman Fisher said. "We have the talent and the infrastructure, but the great lesson of the 1990's is that economic development and community building must go hand and hand in order for either to be sustainable."

In the afternoon, the conference featured a Business Expo and Youth Conference. Two workshops for small businesses were held, Building Equity and Financing Your Business and Marketing Your Business. In addition, three concurrent workshops for youth were featured, Personal Finance, Entrepreneurship Workshop, and Job Readiness. Nonprofit corporations, corporate sponsors, and small businesses participated in the Business Expo.

Joan Bartolomeo, president of BEDC said she organized the conference because "Brooklyn is changing and the challenge for representatives of the private sector, government, and nonprofits in the future will be to create programs and implement policies that preserve neighborhoods while encouraging economic development. Each speaker at the conference has a unique and creative approach to the challenges we face and I am delighted that they were available to share their views at this forum."

In addition to Councilman Fisher, the U.S. Economic Development Administration provided primary funding for the conference. Participating sponsors included Con Edison, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, KeySpan, EAB, HSBC, and Community Capital Bank and Business News Network assisted with promotion.

BEDC, a private, nonprofit organization, was established in 1979 to stimulate Brooklyn's economy and create job opportunities for the borough and its residents. BEDC has evolved into a multi-service, business-consulting agency, serving more than 1,000 clients annually and offering comprehensive economic development services.

More information about BEDC is available at 718-522-4600 or www.bedc.org.