These Property Changes Are Pivotal for Creating More NYC Child Care Centers

As leaders of organizations dedicated to business growth — whether in New York’s central business districts like Downtown Brooklyn or throughout the city — we have seen the impacts insufficient child care can have on our communities and our economy. New York City is rich with assets, but a dearth of child care facilities is stalling growth and preventing us from fully and adequately serving our residents and workers.

According to NYC’s “Blueprint for Child Care & Early Childhood Education in New York City,” more than half a million residents did not seek employment in mid-2021 because of a lack of accessible child care. The report also cites that insufficient child care options reduce the city’s economic output by $23 billion and tax revenue by $2.2 billion. Together with the housing affordability crisis, our city is becoming increasingly hostile to working families and the businesses that rely on them for survival.

A year ago, Better Child Care NYC (BCC NYC) was formed as a response to this crisis. The Association for a Better New York and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership signed on, joining a robust coalition of civic leaders, day care centers, education advocates, chambers of commerce and many others who have seen the cascading impacts of insufficient child care infrastructure and are determined to advocate for solutions.

BCC NYC is not only advocating for easing access to child care centers, but, in doing so, it is advocating for the well-being of the city’s workers, neighborhoods and businesses — as well as the city itself. With the right policy implementations, our downtowns can step up and meet the urgent child care needs of our city’s workforce. 

Fortunately, BCC NYC has identified and is advocating for commonsense policy changes within reach right here in New York City. But the time to act on these is already past due.

According to “Investing in Families and our Future,” a report from the 5BORO Institute, licensed child care centers provide enough seats for only 46 percent of the 445,000 children under age 5 in New York City. To improve availability of child care, it is imperative to streamline the creation of seats in the child care system. To that end, BCC NYC’s policy recommendations all support increased capacity in the system.

First, we recommend extending and improving the NYC Child Care Property Tax Credit by increasing the value of each credit.

Launched in 2023, the NYC Child Care Property Tax Credit program allows property owners who create a new child care site or increase the number of seats at an existing site to apply for an abatement covering up to $225,000 of construction. While this program represents progress and has led to several new centers, it is currently not propelling the growth necessary. Thus far, participating projects have created just 3,100 new child care slots out of a projected 11,000. In addition to an extension of the program, BCC NYC urges the state to enable the city to increase the value of each tax credit, which will help create thousands of much-needed child care seats.

Second, we recommend that policymakers enable child care centers to operate above and below ground floors.

Currently, city law only allows infant and toddler child care on the ground floor of buildings, which significantly reduces seats. Ground-floor leases are generally 27 percent more expensive than upper-floor leases, which cuts into providers’ strained operating margins. In Downtown Brooklyn, for example, we have a thriving mixed-use community where families live alongside major retail corridors and office buildings with plenty of (cheaper) space above ground level. We should take advantage of this opportunity.

Lastly, lawmakers should streamline the permitting and inspections process by consolidating agency review.

Currently, when new child care centers are built, a cumbersome permitting process that involves three separate city agencies presents a huge hurdle for operators and significantly extends the time it takes to open a facility. Policymakers must consolidate the process within a single agency and create a necessary fast track for child care permit approvals.

While conversations around funding for child care are moving forward in Albany, we need to also ensure that policies in New York City are aligned to create more child care centers and more seats for NYC’s children. BCC NYC’s policy recommendations make that possible.

These changes are imperative to keep our local economies, workforces and communities thriving and competitive. We look forward to another year of fighting for child care with BCC NYC and working with our partners in city government to make our city centers as accessible as possible for New York’s working families. 

Regina Myer is president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, and Chad Purkey is interim executive director of the Association for a Better New York.