Ad campaign aims to lure businesses to NY

New York State will soon unveil television commercials touting its support for businesses and urging tourists to spend the summer at Long Island beaches and upstate, officials said Tuesday.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is expected next month to announce a series of ads as part of his "New York Open for Business" initiative. The $50-million effort is designed to reverse the state's reputation for high business costs, including property taxes and regulations.

The board of directors of Empire State Development Corp. heard a briefing on the program Tuesday after approving tax breaks and grants for various companies, including a local nonprofit lender to small businesses.

Harvey Cohen, marketing vice president at the state development corporation, said New York Open for Business would begin with a 60-second TV ad that emphasizes Cuomo's drive to improve the business climate with a property-tax cap, less expensive retirement benefits for government workers and fewer regulations. "This will be a feel-good commercial that talks about how New York has changed," Cohen said at the meeting in Manhattan.

There also will be ads profiling four companies that received state aid. The subjects are still being identified. A state spokesman said a Long Island business would be included in the ads at some point.

The TV spots will be supplemented with ads in newspapers and magazines and on the Internet, Cohen said. The development corporation's website will be improved, as well.

He also said the state would spend $5 million to air a tourism commercial, beginning in May. The ad will focus on summer attractions on the Island and upstate.

To spur residents to consume more goods and services originating in New York State, officials hope to restart a "Made in New York, Grown in New York" campaign that has languished in recent years. The ads would target wines from Long Island and the Finger Lakes and milk and yogurt from upstate.

Separately on Tuesday, the directors approved a $60,000 grant to cover potential loan losses to the Community Development Corporation of Long Island (CDCLI), which plans to make more loans to small businesses in Nassau County.

The provision allows CDCLI to make $600,000 in loans to small businesses in Freeport, Garden City Park, Hempstead village, Manhasset and Roosevelt. Each loan will be for $75,000 or less.

Without the loan loss fund, CDCLI cannot access money earmarked by the state development corporation and Manhasset's Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock for minority- and women-owned companies and those located in low-income neighborhoods.

CDCLI chief executive Marianne Garvin said the group "helps startup businesses and those who may not be able to get a bank loan."