Long Beach May Start Economic Development Program

How can the City of Long Beach generate revenue to help turn around its troubled financial status? 

City Manager Jack Schnirman and the City Council hope to answer that question in part with the creation of a local development corporation to aid business growth in the community.

The council members will vote Tuesday on whether to acquire the law offices of Harris Beach of Uniondale for “the purposes of the formation, creation, organization and administration of a local development corporation and related public finance and economic development services,” according to the Feb. 21 agenda.

While Schnirman said the council is not prepared to release any definitive statements about the corporation until Tuesday’s meeting, he offered Patch a short explanation: “It will be a mechanism for the city to promote economic development, and recruit businesses to Long Beach,” all in the name of boosting the local economy and creating jobs, he added.

The City of Glen Cove, Nassau County’s only other city beside Long Beach, has a similar program. Mayor Ralph Suozzi said that for the past 30 years Glen Cove has had both a state funded Industrial Development Agency (IDA) and a federally funded Community Development Agency (CDA). Both agencies are under the auspices of Glen Cove, he said, but answer to the state and federal government. Suozzi only appoints their boards.

He said the IDA board is designed to aid in lessening the tax burden for new businesses and encourage economic activity. To do that, he said, “you have to have authority from the state. It’s a way of helping businesses grow and stay.”

Suozzi said that since both programs pre-date his administration, he could only speculate that Glen Cove approached the state to aid them with the idea for an IDA. The CDA, he said is “more community orientated,” with some funds going to different youth-oriented groups in addition to businesses. He said their CDA recently donated $25,000 toward façade improvements for a local business. Glen Cove’s program provides financing, tax management and aid in finding grants for economic development projects.

Michael Kerr, president of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, said he looks forward to the assistance such a corporation could bring to the community. “[I hope] we can get it going, get some outside funding, state or federal,” said Kerr, who believes the program will help businesses to grow and to maintain and add jobs. 

He believes that Long Beach needs to attract new industries. “We lost one of our biggest insurance companies,” he said about Nackoul, an agency that needed a building with more space that was unavailable, so it left town for Island Park. 

At Monday's Long Beach Listens meeting, when the city manager and council members talked with residents about community-wide issues at the West End Community Center, Schnirman cited the proposed local development corporation as an example of how the new administration plans to increase revenue streams for Long Beach. Rick Hoffman, president of West End Neighbors Civic Association, showed support for the proposal.

"We know it's economic hard times and I salute you guys on taking the initiative to pass a resolution tomorrow night to enhance businesses," he said. "And more importantly to support the businesses that are here."

* Joseph Kellard contributed to this story. It was updated/corrected at 9:58 p.m. on 2.23.12.