Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center
David Sweeny, Founder & Executive Director
David Sweeny is the founder and executive director of the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center (GMDC), a Local Development Corporation in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. GMDC’s mission is to create and retain manufacturing jobs in underserved communities by purchasing and rehabilitating underutilized industrial property for conversion into manufacturing centers.
In the early 1990’s, GMDC convinced the City of New York to sell a neglected eight-building complex for a dollar in order to create a wood making and artisan center. Today, the 400,000 square-foot Center is totally rehabilitated and home to 72 businesses that in turn employ 500 people. GMDC has implemented job training and micro loan programs at the Center and has become a national model for how to add to a neighborhood’s employment base by revitalizing manufacturing in industrialized urban communities.
GMDC is currently embarking on a business mode that will involve the purchase and rehabilitation of additional industrial properties in order to create business centers for displaced manufactures in New York City, including the food, garment, printing, and wood working sectors.