Empire State Development Corporation

New York State Urban Development Corporation

Empire State Development logo
Public authority overview
Jurisdiction	New York
Public authority executives	Howard Zemsky, president Derrick Cephas, acting chairman
Key document	New York State Urban Development Corporation Act
Website	www.esd.ny.gov

Empire State Development (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York's two principal economic development public-benefit corporations, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the Job Development Authority (JDA). The New York State Department of Economic Development (DED) is a department of the New York government that has been operationally merged into ESD.

ESD gives its mission as promoting the state economy, encouraging business investment and job creation, and supporting local economies through loans, grants, tax credits, real estate development, marketing and other forms of assistance.

Since 1995, four entities have been operationally merged and referred to as Empire State Development (ESD):

Although ESD officials have programmatically consolidated the DED, UDC, JDA and STF, they have not legally consolidated the agencies. The commissioner of the DED is the chairman of the boards of UDC, JDA and STF, but those boards continue to operate as separate bodies.

The UDC is allowed to operate through subsidiaries. Each subsidiary has its own board of directors. As of October 2015^[update], there were nine subsidiaries of ESD:

The UDC is empowered to issue bonds and notes, grant loans and tax exemptions, acquire private property, exercise eminent domain, create subsidiaries, and exempt projects from/override local laws, ordinances, codes, charters or regulations (e.g., zoning). As with all New York state public-benefit corporations, it can issue bonds without a voter referendum, bypassing the NY's state constitution limits. As of May 2015^[update] the UDC reported outstanding debts of $11 billion.

As of October 2015^[update], major projects included the:

The state Division of Commerce was created in 1941 and subsumed several state bureaus and the Bureau of Industry. It was replaced in 1944 by the state Department of Commerce. The New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) was created in 1968 by the York State Urban Development Corporation Act. On August 31, 1987, the Omnibus Economic Development Act created the state Department of Economic Development (DED). In 1975, the UDC was reorganized and its mission expanded from developing housing to economic development.