A small but long-powerful New York City agency helped to construct the High Line, build a new Yankee Stadium and plan the glittering skyscape of Hudson Yards.
Now, Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to give this engine of economic development a very different new mission: advocating for economic justice.
A month into office, Mr. Mamdani has yet to appoint a president of the organization, the Economic Development Corporation. Nor has he publicly outlined a plan to foster job growth at a time when the city’s job numbers are stagnating.
But according to a memo circulated by the administration on Jan. 2 and obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Mamdani wants to remake the E.D.C. as part of his vow to address affordability and workers’ rights. It should focus on “quality (not just number) of jobs created for the people who call N.Y.C. home,” reads the memo from Julie Su, the city’s first ever deputy mayor for economic justice.
That message was reinforced by the nature of the questions posed to candidates interviewing for the job of running the agency.
They have been asked how they would hold companies that receive benefits from New York City accountable and how they would measure whether the economy was working for everyone, according to five people familiar with the conversations.
The interviews were conducted by Lina Khan, the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission in the Biden administration who helped lead Mr. Mamdani’s transition team but has limited experience in economic development. Her questions did not focus heavily on issues long central to the agency’s mission, the people said, such as expanding the economy and maintaining the city’s economic competitiveness.
Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said that all job interviews have included questions both about economic development and job creation. She also argued that Ms. Khan was well-suited to lead those interviews because as chair of the Federal Trade Commission, she regulated 85 percent of the U.S. economy.
Nevertheless, several economic development experts expressed concern about the apparent lack of emphasis — in the interview questions and in statements from the new mayor — on job creation and expanding the city’s tax base, amid his push to raise taxes on corporations and the highest earners.
Last year, private companies in the city added 33,000 positions, about a quarter of the jobs created in 2024. That limited growth heightened a significant concern about the labor market: Major industries like finance and insurance lost jobs while nearly all of the new positions were concentrated in low-wage health care roles.
The Economic Development Corporation is supposed to step into that space. In recent years, the corporation has devised a redevelopment plan for the city’s biggest wholesale produce market and worked to reimagine Staten Island’s North Shore.
It has also taken part in deals that have created controversy, including an effort it led to build a mixed-use development at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal and a bid to build a $2 billion platform over a rail yard in Manhattan for one of the city’s biggest developers. Mr. Mamdani could renegotiate or reshape both deals.
Ms. Su declined to comment substantively on either issue.
But the people familiar with Ms. Khan’s line of questioning said it was clear that the mayor wanted to make economic justice central to the E.D.C.’s mission, and the administration also suggested that goal in the memo sent to the agency the day after Mr. Mamdani was sworn in.
It also appears that the mayor may, by some measures, be less interested in “economic development” than his predecessors. He is the first mayor in at least 26 years not to name a deputy mayor whose title includes “economic development.”
In her memo, Ms. Su sought criteria for evaluating the corporation’s programs and contracts to ensure that they advanced “not just economic growth or economic strength, but justice.”
She said that such criteria could include whether the programs created union jobs, reduced the cost of living or improved job opportunities for “diverse communities that call New York home,” the memo said. The corporation is already involved in Mr. Mamdani’s plan for creating city-owned grocery stores.
“For me and for the mayor, growth and economic justice go hand in hand,” Ms. Su said in an interview on Tuesday, adding that she had met with business leaders in recent days.
Steven Fulop, the new president of the Partnership for New York City, an influential business group, said that after talking with Ms. Su, he felt reassured that job creation and expanding the economy would remain core tenets of the agency.
“Most in the business community would say that accountability is a good thing and that bad actors should be held accountable — as long as they’re recognizing that most corporations are not necessarily bad actors,” Mr. Fulop said.
Since its formation 35 years ago, every mayor has put his imprint on the Economic Development Corporation. It has also faced perennial criticism from government watchdogs, elected Democrats and activists for a lack of transparency into how it operates and makes deals, especially involving generous corporate tax breaks and subsidies to large companies, including those that threatened to leave the city.
With more than 500 employees, the Economic Development Corporation operates less like a traditional municipal agency and more like a private-sector firm, and its autonomy allows it to pursue and implement complex projects far more quickly than other agencies. Employees, who are not unionized, have expertise in urban planning, infrastructure, real estate and more.
During the two previous mayoral administrations, the Economic Development Corporation focused some on diversity and equity, such as promoting minority-owned small businesses and entrepreneurs. It has made investments designed to diversify the city’s economy, including in the green economy, life sciences and tech.
But Mr. Mamdan’s priorities — economic justice and corporate accountability — have never been front and center for the organization.
It is unclear just how significant the changes Mr. Mamdani has in mind for the corporation are. But he did place it under Ms. Su and not another deputy mayor who oversees the Department of City Planning, even though City Planning and the E.D.C. typically work together.
“He would be foolish to discard the successful track record over the last several years in terms of infrastructure projects, economic growth, diversification of the economy as well as the professional staff that is still in place,” said Randy Peers, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “I hope he wouldn’t cast any of that aside.”
Under former Mayor Eric Adams, the organization was led by Andrew Kimball, who had experience in economic development, previously overseeing the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Industry City in Sunset Park. While Mr. Kimball expressed interest in keeping the job under Mr. Mamdani, he was not asked to stay.
Many people who have been asked about their interest in the job or formally interviewed for it have previously worked at the Economic Development Corporation.
Matthew Haag is a Times reporter covering the New York City economy and the intersection of real estate and politics in the region.
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