Downtown Brooklyn Partnership Seeks Next Phase In Development As President Steps Down

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP) is about to begin a new phase in its development, as its president prepares to step aside.

The DBP has announced that president Tucker Reed will leave on August 5, following five years at the helm of the organization, which has spearheaded the rapid change that has characterized the neighborhood.

“It’s been inspiring to watch this new skyline take shape, but now that it is largely there, and the neighborhood enters its next phase, it’s going to take someone with a more programmatic approach than I’ve got,” Reed told the New York Times.

As the New York Times reports:

“I like to think of things in leveraged returns,” Mr. Reed, 36, said recently at his office in the MetroTech Center. Since 2004, “the city invested $400 million in infrastructure and coupled that with a host of new policies,” he added. “And the market responded with close to $12 billion in new investment and development. Not too shabby.”

More than 2,200 apartments have been built in Downtown Brooklyn since Mr. Reed took over. Almost 6,000 more are under construction, and an additional 7,000 are planned, with a combined value of more than $8 billion, according to the partnership. More than two dozen office and retail projects are in the works, and new parks have blossomed on once-desolate lots.

“Because of Tucker, cities around the globe look to the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership as the best of the best in local business advocacy and economic development,” said the DBP board of directors co-chairs MaryAnne Gilmartin and Bre Pettis in a statement.

The DBP describes the role its president as someone who “must serve as an effective advocate for public and private investment in Downtown Brooklyn and strategically position the organization to maximize economic development within the area.” The president of the DBP is responsible for a budget of $11.5 million and 30 employees, according to a job description posted by the organization.

“I hope people will remember that we built a fine organization, full of extraordinary people, whose commitment to the betterment of Brooklyn is their higher calling,” said Reed in a statement.