Amsterdam / Brussels. A major exhibition and convention complex for trade fairs, conferences, product launches, and international business events.
1. MISSION
Make FiDi the World Capital for Marketing and Selling Urban Solutions.
AI, climate risk, and demographic change are reshaping cities — and fast. The Invent City initiative turns FiDi’s vacant offices into a permanent market where urban solutions from around the world are shown, tested, financed, and bought at scale — deploying critical solutions faster and building a new export economy for New York.
$4.275B direct annual activity
14,534 jobs counted once
$530.9M public revenue + capacity
Illustrative annual impact at full buildout. Buildout follows demand; it is expected by 2035.
OBJECTIVES
Accelerate deployment of critical urban solutions — especially urgent climate technologies.
Create a path for urban AI and robotics — so cities can test, govern, and adopt emerging technologies.
Build a powerful economic engine for New York City — attract companies, talent, investment, visitors, and jobs.
SHOW
TEST
COMPARE
FINANCE
BUY
DEPLOY
SCALE
2. STRATEGY
Create a Trade Mart in FiDi to Spark the Creation of an Urban Solutions Cluster.
Lead with the numbers. Measure the cost of delay, value of action, and size and timing of demand before committing capital. Invent City turns economics into buying signals, giving cities, investors, and companies evidence to move from interest to procurement.
Economics drives urban action. compounds operating losses, infrastructure failures, disruption, and replacement costs; cuts costs and creates jobs, revenue, and investable returns. The is enormous. is transforming city operations, while the drives investment in resilience, energy, water, buildings, infrastructure, and food — reshaping what cities buy and creating vast new markets.
PLANET +
RESOURCES
Sea Level
Energy Trends
Air Temperature
TECHNOLOGY +
INFRASTRUCTURE
AI Customers
AI Uses
EV Takeup
PEOPLE +
SOCIETY
Population
Developing Markets
Migration Trends
ECONOMY +
GEOPOLITICS
The Gap
Chasm
Hotspots
100%
Turn FiDi’s vacancy into a global advantage. Use its space, transit, waterfront, institutions, capital, and visibility to launch quickly, lower startup costs, draw international buyers, and build a year-round market without waiting for new construction.
concentrates capital, media, talent, agencies, universities, tourism, and culture in one global market.
puts buyers, transit, hotels, vacant space, institutions, and the waterfront within minutes.
adds test sites and operating partners across the five boroughs.
Invent City uses the Trade Mart to turn cluster traffic into year-round transactions. Buyers compare and purchase; sellers demonstrate; partners convert interest into contracts. A central hall and distributed FiDi showrooms open quickly, activate vacant space, and expand with demand — a model that have already proven.
RAI
Amsterdam / Brussels
Chelsea Harbour
London
Nord Villepinte
Paris
The Mart
Chicago
Design Center
New York City
D&D Shopping
Sao Paulo
World Trade Mart
Dallas / Austin
Pacific Design Center
Los Angeles - media and design
World Trade Centre
Dubai
Big Sight
Tokyo - top-10 today
NECC
Shanghai - top-10 today
Hannover Messe
Hanover
AmericasMart
Atlanta
Messe
Frankfurt
Toki
Chiba / Tokyo
Anchored by the Trade Mart, Invent City will grow FiDi’s urban-solutions economy by concentrating companies, buyers, capital, and media. This can draw global companies into FiDi’s 10.8 million sf of vacant space. Formal models include . Projected demand: 1 msf direct, 2 msf indirect, 2 msf knock-on.
100%
Make solutions impossible to ignore. Fill adaptable FiDi space with working showrooms where buyers can see, compare, test, finance, and purchase technologies across urban industries. Permanent visibility turns isolated demonstrations into repeatable sales.
1 permanent market
12 urban industries
365 selling days a year
Invent City maps the forces changing what cities must buy, protect, replace, and automate. Cross-industry demand reveals the strongest markets.
| Planet + Resources | Transportation | Buildings | Power | Waste | Agriculture | Consumer | Energy | Water | Wastewater | AI | Robotics | Logistics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate change | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●● |
| Energy transition | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●● |
| Water + food security | ● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● |
| Resource scarcity + waste | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●● |
| Technology + Infrastructure | ||||||||||||
| AI + automation | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● |
| Robotics | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● |
| Aging infrastructure | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●● | ●● |
| Mobility transformation | ●●● | ●● | ●●● | ● | ● | ●● | ●●● | ● | ● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● |
| Cybersecurity | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●● |
| People + Society | ||||||||||||
| Demographic change | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●● |
| Migration | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● |
| Housing pressure | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●● |
| Public health | ●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● |
| Inequality + social stability | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● |
| Economy + Geopolitics | ||||||||||||
| War + geopolitical instability | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● |
| Economic disruption | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● |
| Supply-chain disruption | ●●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● |
| Political + governance change | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●●● |
| Technological acceleration | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●● | ●● | ●●● | ●●● | ●●● |
● Impact
●● Strong impact
●●● Transformational impact
A keeps showrooms open and sales active year-round. The model works at The Mart, AmericasMart, Dallas Market Center, High Point Market, and Design Centre Chelsea Harbour. Invent City applies it to urban solutions, bringing buyers, sellers, capital, regulators, and implementation partners together to speed deployment.
Keep the Mart selling beyond its walls. Connect physical showrooms to events, media, virtual demonstrations, market intelligence, and digital tools. Companies reach buyers across time zones, build relationships before visits, and keep deals moving afterward.
Invent City is . Global products meet New York buyers, operating conditions, capital, and a path to scale. Discovery and deal flow continue online.
READY NOW
NEXT
FUTURE
3. TACTICS
It’s Already Underway.
Build momentum before full buildout. Convene roundtables, stage public festivals, launch a future exhibit, recruit founding companies, and test revenue early. Each program should reveal demand, strengthen the network, attract partners, and make the next investment easier.
Recurring roundtables turn New York’s urban challenges into deployable solutions. Focus on AI, climate risk, affordability, and infrastructure directly to the city’s priorities: NYC Groceries, housing, transportation, Blue Highways, and energy storage. Invent City is the market mechanism that helps the city find, compare, test, finance, procure, and deploy what turns policy into working systems.
ROUNDTABLE HIGHLIGHTS
- AI — Move from promise to deployment. Explore how AI is reshaping city operations, infrastructure, buildings, mobility, logistics, public services, and decision-making — and what cities need to test, govern, procure, and scale it responsibly.
- ENERGY — Build the power system cities will need next. Examine the transition to cheaper renewables, distributed generation, storage, electrification, microgrids, and smarter grids — with a focus on reliability, resilience, cost, and technologies cities can deploy now.
- CLIMATE — Turn rising risk into accelerated action. Focus on practical solutions for extreme heat, flooding, sea-level rise, water stress, storms, and infrastructure vulnerability — connecting climate risk directly to investment, procurement, resilience, and new urban markets.
Turn Invent City into a public festival of urban solutions — demonstrations, installations, talks, tours, food, and performances that let residents, buyers, and policymakers experience the future of cities together. Programming spans AI, climate adaptation, food systems, Blue Highway logistics, and clean energy, converting public attention into year-round Trade Mart activity.
Create an evolving public exhibit that makes the future of cities tangible through working solutions, prototypes, research, scenarios, and stories from New York and around the world.
New York, 2100
Lagos, 2100
London, 2100
Build the coalition required to deliver. Recruit public buyers, nonprofits, corporations, investors, and incubators that bring problems, products, capital, space, credibility, and execution capacity. A stronger network creates a stronger market.
Attract investors who can finance Invent City, individual showrooms, real estate activation, demonstrations, and urban-solution projects. Connect capital directly to companies, buyers, and projects so promising solutions move from interest to deployment. Contact tom@invent.city.
Recruit city, state, federal, and international public partners as buyers, problem owners, regulators, funders, and hosts for demonstrations and pilots.
Engage nonprofit partners to identify needs, build evidence, convene communities, represent users, and connect Invent City to projects and buyers in New York and around the world.
International
- C40 Cities
- ICLEI
- World Resources Institute
- RMI
- The Climate Group
New York City Area
- Transportation Alternatives
- Lower East Side Ecology Center
- Urban Green Council
- Regional Plan Association
- Open Plans
- Center for an Urban Future
Recruit companies that can sell, buy, finance, insure, design, install, and operate urban solutions. Founding corporate partners should bring products, customer demand, implementation capacity, and market credibility.
- Transportation
- Buildings
- Power
- Waste
- Agriculture
- Consumer
- Energy
- Water
- Wastewater
- AI
- Robotics
- Logistics
100%
Move from district strategy to specific addresses. Score FiDi buildings and public spaces for visibility, access, flexibility, cost, ownership readiness, event capacity, and demonstration potential. Start where Invent City can open quickly and matter most.
Prioritize FiDi locations that combine visibility, access, flexible space, and proximity to buyers, partners, events, and demonstration sites.
Assemble the team that can launch and scale. Add leaders in partnerships, programming, real estate, operations, finance, design, media, and technology. Give each person a clear mandate: secure demand, deliver experiences, and turn attention into revenue.
4. BENEFITS
Solve Urgent Problems. Build a New York Industry.
Turn Invent City into a global business destination. Attract high-value visitors who spend across hotels, restaurants, retail, entertainment, and transit while meeting suppliers and buying solutions. Model the opportunity clearly; scale programming with proven demand.
700K annual visitors
$1.5B modeled impact
4,224 supported jobs
| Tourism summary | Low | Mid | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual visitorsFrom 4.1.2 Details: Table 1, Base assumptions | 400,000 | 700,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Traveler spending ($/yr)From 4.1.2 Details: Table 2A, Hotel and other traveler spending | $414,000,000 | $944,125,000 | $1,768,750,000 |
| Total economic impact ($/yr)From 4.1.2 Details: Table 2B, Total economic impact | $641,700,000 | $1,463,393,750 | $2,741,562,500 |
| Tourism-supported jobsFrom 4.1.2 Details: Table 3, Tourism-supported jobs | 2,414 | 4,224 | 6,034 |
| Modeled taxes and fees ($/yr, no PIT)From 4.1.2 Details: Table 4C, Tax totals roll-up | $49,473,750 | $111,468,438 | $206,796,875 |
| Rounded taxes and fees ($/yr, no PIT)From 4.1.2 Details: Table 4C, rounded grand total | $49,500,000 | $111,500,000 | $206,800,000 |
| Note: PIT excluded to avoid double counting with City Trade Mart payroll impacts. Jobs scale with visitor count (6,034 per 1M visitors). Low/Mid/High vary both visitor volume (400K/700K/1M) and spending rates. | |||
Build a year-round commercial engine. Fill the Mart with companies, buyers, and implementation partners whose jobs, payroll, procurement, and transactions generate direct activity and public revenue. Make FiDi the place urban-solutions companies come to sell and grow.
7,000 direct jobs
$1.2B direct payroll
$1.5B direct activity
| City Trade Mart summary | Mid |
|---|---|
| Direct on-site jobsFrom 4.2.2 Details: Table 1, Jobs based on area | 7,000 |
| Direct payroll ($/yr)From 4.2.2 Details: Table 2B, Mid-case payroll detail | $1,165,000,000 |
| Local procurement ($/yr)From 4.2.2 Details: Table 3, Local procurement | $349,500,000 |
| Total direct activity ($/yr)From 4.2.2 Details: Table 4, Direct campus activity | $1,514,500,000 |
| Note: Direct activity shown here is kept separate from tourism and real-estate modules to reduce double counting. | |
Put idle space back to productive work. Lease and adapt three million square feet for showrooms, offices, events, and supporting uses. New occupancy restores rent, strengthens property value, activates streets, and expands recurring public revenue capacity.
3M sf back to work
$1.8B implied asset value
$70M/yr revenue capacity
| Real estate summary | Low | Mid | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stabilized leased area (sf)From 4.3.2 Details: Table 1, Leasing assumptions | 3,000,000 | 3,000,000 | 3,000,000 |
| Annual rent ($/yr)From 4.3.2 Details: Tables 1 and 1A, rent total | $165,000,000 | $165,000,000 | $165,000,000 |
| NOI ($/yr)From 4.3.2 Details: Table 2B, Total NOI on 3.0M sf | $111,750,000 | $106,860,000 | $102,000,000 |
| Illustrative implied value at 6.0% cap ($)From 4.3.2 Details: Table 2C, Implied value from capitalized NOI | $1,862,500,000 | $1,781,000,000 | $1,700,000,000 |
| Modeled recurring NYC revenue capacity ($/yr)From 4.3.2 Details: Table 4C, Total modeled recurring NYC revenue capacity | $69,704,500 | $70,675,890 | $71,313,250 |
| Rounded recurring NYC revenue capacity ($/yr)From 4.3.2 Details: Table 4C, rounded total | $69,700,000 | $70,700,000 | $71,300,000 |
| Note: This module is kept separate to avoid double counting with jobs, tourism, and construction modules. | |||
