The Lansing Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) is a quasi-governmental agency, a separate corporation run by an independent Board of Directors.
The LEDC has an annual contract that allows it to conduct all economic development services on behalf of the city of Lansing. This includes business development, recruitment and retention as well as the management of the Lansing Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (LBRA), the downtown Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA), all tax zones, the Lansing Regional SmartZone, Linking Lansing and "U" and the management of all city incentives
The LEDC has a staff of six including President and CEO Bob Trezise. LEDC employees are not city employees, but employed at will. There are nine Board members nominated by the Mayor of Lansing and approved by the Lansing City Council. One of those Board seats, per state law, must be held by the city CEO (Mayor Bernero) or his representative. The Board is made up from the region and hold six year terms. The Board meets once a month, the first Friday at 7:45 am in the LEDC offices. All meetings abide by the Open Meetings Act and the LEDC is subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
The LEDC's funding comes from a variety of sources including: An annual contract for services with the city of Lansing, 5% admin. from annual TIFA revenues, brownfield admin., incentive application fees, interest income from financial accounts, revolving loan fund repayments with interest and grant admin. monies. Funding for the annual contract for LEDC services is contained in a line item in the city's Planning and Neighborhood Development department.
The city of Lansing is split into geographic territories and each territory is handled by a one-stop-shop, cross trained LEDC employee. Territories are: Outer core of city, inner core of city and downtown.
