From 2011-2019, EDGE PILOT recipients spent $426 million with minority/women/small local firms, exceeding their commitments by more than $110 million.
A new report looks at the local spending activity of active PILOT recipients between 2011-2019. Those PILOTs were approved by the Industrial Development Board (IDB) or EDGE. From 2011-2019, the 78 PILOT recipients contracted with 385 MWBEs and Locally-Owned Small Businesses (LOSB).
In 2019, the latest year of data, EDGE PILOT recipients spent more than $72 million with local MWBEs and LOSBs, exceeding their initial commitments by more than $45 million. From 2018 to 2019, there was a $16 million increase in total spending with MWBEs, and average spending per MWBE was up by $65,000.
Efforts to assist MWBEs and LOSBs through the PILOT program date back to 2001, when the IDB created its Jobs Plus Voluntary Program, which was followed by the IDB Diversity Program in 2008. EDGE continued the Diversity Program and subsequently updated it with the Local Business Participation (LBP) Program, which, since 2017, focuses exclusively on growing City and County-certified MWBEs.
