History

Founded in 1958 by David Rockefeller, the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association is a membership organization of key Downtown stakeholders committed to a dynamic business community. For over 50 years, we’ve served as a powerful networking platform for senior corporate and non-profit executives, as well as a public policy forum and effective advocate for Lower Manhattan.

In the early years, the D-LMA activated the corporate community to reinvigorate Lower Manhattan through paradigm-shifting public projects and prescient private development. We challenged the classic notion of a world-class business district with calls for the inclusion of housing, schools, and parkland in the 1993 Lower Manhattan Plan. We also spurred the creation of the largest business improvement district in North America, the Alliance for Downtown New York.

Since September 11, 2001, the D-LMA has worked closely with community and government leaders to rebuild and modernize Lower Manhattan’s infrastructure. Most recently, the D-LMA led the charge for the completion of the World Trade Center site, the Fulton Transit Center and a direct connection from Lower Manhattan to Newark Airport. We’ve also worked tirelessly for government projects, policies and reforms that affirm Lower Manhattan as the premier location for the current and next generation of businesses, opinion makers and investors.

The D-LMA has partnered with prominent organizations like ABNY, REBNY and RPA and others with a singularity of purpose — to preserve, prepare and promote Lower Manhattan as a great place to do business.