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State Will Cut Half of Lower Manhattan Development Corp.'s Staff

Workers demolished the last remains of the Deutsche Bank building in February 2011. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is cutting its staff now that the demolition is complete.
Workers demolished the last remains of the Deutsche Bank building in February 2011. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation is cutting its staff now that the demolition is complete.
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DNAinfo/Julie Shapiro

By Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

LOWER MANHATTAN — The state will begin shutting down the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. later this month, state officials said Monday.

"We're ready for the next phase of the organization," said Peter Davidson, executive director of the Empire State Development Corp., the LMDC's parent agency. "Now we can reduce the staff."

The cuts, which were first reported by the New York Post, include slashing half of the LMDC's 29-person staff, along with half the staff of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, Davidson said.

The two city-state agencies don't need as many workers now that the Deutsche Bank building was finally demolished, the World Trade Center site plan was complete and a dispute with utility companies was resolved, Davidson said.

"It's not because anybody has done a bad job," Davidson said.

The LMDC still has $700 million of federal post-9/11 recovery money in the bank, nearly all of which is dedicated to specific projects, including the East River Waterfront and the 9/11 memorial. All that remained for the LMDC to do was give out the money and monitor its use, Davidson said.

The LMDC would likely have to exist for at least another four to five years to monitor the grants, though the agency might eventually be reduced to one staff member, Davidson said.

The LMDC is currently reviewing applications for its final $17 million in unallocated funding. The agency was supposed to award the grants by the end of March but may take an extra couple months after receiving many more applications than expected, Davidson said.

Julie Menin, an LMDC board member who has long advocated for the agency to put a sunset plan in place, said the ESDC should consult the community before taking any drastic steps.

Menin is concerned about the plans to cut the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, which coordinates the myriad rebuilding projects downtown.

"We're not even into our peak construction year," Menin said. "This is very troubling."

Davidson said the LMCCC would cut the staff that oversaw the Deutsche Bank deconstruction, along with the staff that worked directly on the World Trade Center site, since the Port Authority is taking the lead role in managing that project.

The LMDC is expected to vote on the cuts as part of its new budget at a meeting March 31.