New data shows developers still ignoring official “goals” for jobs and business opportunities for local residents

In 2016, the New Rochelle IDA and City Council unanimously adopted an Economic Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy (EONDP) setting goals for local hire, good family-supporting jobs, and business opportunities for residents in the city’s downtown development projects.  The City has never come close to meeting these goals, and new data shows that the failure continues.  

The New Rochelle Industrial Development Agency (IDA) plays a pivotal role in determining how tax dollars are used to support job creation and whether those jobs are good family supporting jobs and careers, or poverty wage, dead-end jobs.  Anticipation that the IDA will finally take meaningful action to increase opportunities for residents in the downtown redevelopment grows with each passing month.

The agenda for the September 30 IDA meeting includes “Other Business/Discussion Items”.  Will this  be the month when long-awaited changes to IDA policies will be put on the table to support the goals of the EONDP?  

Data for the first six months of 2026 shows that, once again, the promise of local hire and family-supporting jobs continues to elude New Rochelle residents. 

The average wage of New Rochelle residents who succeeded in getting either full or part-time jobs through the City’s First Source Referral Center this year was $21.41 an hour. According to the MIT Living Wage calculator, a living wage in Westchester County is now $35.72 for an adult with no children..

Regarding local hire, the city set a goal of 20% of the work being done by local residents.  According to the most recent available data, in 2025 only 6.3% of the construction workers in the downtown area were New Rochelle residents. 

In his most recent report, using data from 2024, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli–who oversees the state’s 106 IDAs–found that New Rochelle’s IDA had 45 active projects with a total value of $3.2 billion. To support this development, New Rochelle residents have invested $35 million through IDA-awarded tax breaks.   

Reports suggest that developers have been pocketing their tax breaks rather than using them to meet the EONDP goals.  According to a report from New York State, the estimated net job increase in 2024 in New Rochelle was 79, at a net tax exemption of per jobs gained of $442,585.

The IDA and City adopted the EONDP to “ensure that city residents and historically underrepresented communities have access to” opportunities “generated by the redevelopment.” It established goals for developers to meet and requires them to report annually on how they are doing in meeting those goals, which include:

• “at least 20% of the work hours” be done by a “qualified and/or trained” New Rochelle resident
• having apprentices do 1,000 hours of work for every 20,000 hours worked building a project 
• “awarding 20% of the dollar value of subcontracts for construction work” to local businesses by each prime contractor.

The policy requires only that developers make “best efforts” to meet these goals. Almost ten years of “best efforts” have not resulted in any improvement for residents in the downtown redevelopment.

To address the decade-long failure to deliver on its promises to taxpayers, the IDA adopted a “Social Equity Program” requiring that 15% of a project’s total costs go to local hire, union labor, or Minority or Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs).  

So far, one project has been required to meet these goals, WBLM’s condominium development called 14 LeCount Phase II. Data shows that women-owned business enterprises (WBE’s) benefited most from the Social Equity Program.  Local and minority-owned businesses, local hire and union labor missed out on the potential benefits of the program.

Rather than tweaking failed policies, advocates for changing the EONDP to make it effective have lobbied the IDA and the City to change the wording “shall make affirmative efforts” and “shall make good faith efforts” to read “shall be required,” and adding “project labor agreements” as a requirement for developers who seek public investment through the form of tax breaks through the IDA.

A Project Labor Agreement (PLA), also known as a Community Workforce Agreement, is a pre-hire agreement between developers and labor unions that sets the terms and conditions of employment for a specific project. PLAs establish standardized wages, benefits, and working rules for all contractors and subcontractors on a job site, whether they are union or nonunion.

Typically, construction workers who are employed on a job with a PLA earn close to the Prevailing Wage for the craft — laborer, carpenter, electrician, etc. — they are performing. PLAs are known to ensure complex construction projects are delivered safely, efficiently, and on schedule.  Requiring developers that are awarded IDA tax breaks to meet the EONDP goals and sign a Project Labor Agreement will result in good, family supporting jobs and better business opportunities for New Rochelle residents. 

Whether or not the IDA discusses amending their policy at the September 30 meeting to make it work for New Rochelle residents remains to be seen. In the meantime, residents continue to question the benefits of their taxes being used to support the more than $3 billion in private investment in New Rochelle’s redevelopment.

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