Make New York's FiDi the World Capital for Urban Solutions.

Heat is rising. Power and water demand are surging. AI is adding to the load. The solutions exist. Deployment is the bottleneck.

Invent.City turns vacant offices in New York's Financial District into the place that breaks it: a permanent Trade Mart for urban solutions.

Vacant office space become showrooms. Showrooms attract buyers. Buyers attract companies, jobs, tourism, and tax revenue. Not a building. Not a subsidy. A new economic engine for FiDi.

For the world: one year-round market where cities compare, test, finance, and buy urban solutions, and ultimately accelerate deployment of critical solutions.

For New York: 13,173 direct and tourism-supported jobs, $2.4B in annual activity, $219M in taxes and fees, and $71M in recurring real-estate revenue.

2. STRATEGY

Create a Trade Mart. Spark an Urban Solutions Cluster.

Policy has not delivered at the speed cities need. Pledges point to 2.3–2.5°C of warming; current policy points nearer 2.8°C. The need is immediate, the spending is unavoidable, and the market is forming now. Cities cannot wait for treaties to work — they need an implementation engine.

2050 annual projections shown in the chart. Urban-market and regional GDP values are Invent.City modeled estimates; climate damage follows the Swiss Re Institute current-temperature trajectory.
Measure	2050 annual value
Total urban market	$43.3T
Climate damage	$23T
California GDP	$10.4T
Texas GDP	$6.9T
Metro New York GDP	$5.8T
Florida GDP	$4.3T
New York City GDP	$3.5T

The economic case combines market demand with the cost of inaction. By 2050, climate-related are projected to form a $43.3T annual urban market. Swiss Re Institute projects that the will cut global GDP by about 14%, or $23T, under the current temperature trajectory. That annual loss is roughly equal to the combined projected 2050 economies of California ($10T), Texas ($7T), and metro New York ($6T).

Five forces are changing what cities must buy: hardens infrastructure; the transition rewires it; change how it operates; change reshapes demand; and is a major force in its own right. Its scale and speed are already redefining solar, EVs, and robotics—and will likely do the same in AI.

CLIMATE
CRISIS

ENERGY +
RESOURCES

TECHNOLOGY +
INFRASTRUCTURE

PEOPLE +
SOCIETY

ECONOMY +
GEOPOLITICS

Cities need a simpler way to procure urban solutions. Invent.City proposes a year-round B2B Trade Mart in FiDi: permanent showrooms that place working systems and their vendors side by side, giving buyers direct evidence for procurement decisions.

FiDi's advantage starts with New York: the largest urban market in the country, at the center of a region of 58 million people, and a global capital of finance, media, technology and research.

It also has room. Cushman & Wakefield counted of direct and sublease vacancy across Financial East and Insurance in Q2 2026 — space for showrooms, companies and events. The Mart turns that vacancy into economic infrastructure.

Urban systems cannot be judged from a brochure. Across twelve immersive showrooms, city teams operate each system under real conditions. A common scorecard records performance, integration, emissions, resilience, lifecycle cost, and deployment readiness.

Transport

Reconfigure a full-scale street, then watch how curbs, micromobility, shuttles, charging, transit technology, and wayfinding reshape movement in real time.

New York City already has major initiatives underway in FiDi: Blue Highways and the Downtown Skyport, the FiDi Microhub and curb-management programs, thermal energy and station modernization, commercial waste zones, and coastal resiliency. Invent.City brings this work into one visible district, where the Trade Mart can show progress, surface procurement needs, connect agencies and vendors, and help successful pilots become repeatable systems.

FiDi's 10.7 MSF of vacant office space is the initiative's strategic advantage. Residential works only where floorplates, cores, light, and economics align — so Invent.City does not compete with it. It completes it. Conversion takes the buildings that can become housing; Invent.City takes the ones that cannot. That is how SoHo and Tribeca became mixed-use districts. Housing alone does not make an economic district.

Phase one starts light. Adapt existing shells, open the spaces that can earn revenue first, and expand only where buyer demand follows. Early capital funds tenants, demonstrations and sales rather than a district-wide buildout, while leases, sponsorships and events begin funding the next phase.

Pedestrianization

Turns traffic corridors into economic and civic space.

The value does not stop at the showroom door. Invent.City brings tenants, buyers, visitors, and investment into FiDi; supports local businesses; funds better streets and public spaces; and improves logistics, sanitation, and public amenities. The Mart grows by making the neighborhood work better.

The Trade Mart is physical; the market is . Events concentrate demand, media carries proof, and the digital market keeps both working between visits.

3. TACTICS

Build the Market Now. Build Out the District Next.

Join Invent.City's roundtables on , , and . Put your solutions in front of buyers and partners, help shape FiDi's future, and build awareness through shared insights and stories beyond the room.

Invent.City stages a Future City exhibit presenting two versions of 2050: a shaped by technology, design, and effective policy, and a shaped by delay, climate stress, failing systems, displacement, and surveillance. Together they make the stakes tangible — the choices cities make now decide which one arrives.

New York, 2100

Lagos, 2100

London, 2100

Invent.City operates as a physical B2B trade mart, technology demonstration hub, and global urban innovation marketplace centered in Lower Manhattan. To support its real estate footprint (3 million square feet in FiDi), immersive category showrooms, and global project execution pipeline, the financing strategy uses a multi-tranche model combining real estate debt, strategic corporate sponsorships, venture/private equity capital, and civic economic development tools.

Funding Tier	Capital Source	Target Allocation	Primary Use Cases
Phase I: Pre-Development & Site Acquisition	Public-Private Grants, Anchor VC, Sponsor Equity	$50M – $100M	Master planning, digital twin software, initial lease commitments, regulatory approvals.
Phase II: Real Estate & Buildout (FiDi Mart)	Commercial Real Estate Debt, PILOT / IDA Bonds, Con Edison / NYSERDA Incentives	$500M – $1.2B	Commercial lease acquisitions, physical infrastructure (microgrid, water systems loop, street labs).
Phase III: Showroom & Sub-Market Expansion	Corporate Anchor Tenant Capital, Vendor Fit-Out Financing	$300M – $500M	Immersive sector room buildouts (AI, Energy, Mobility, Robotics, Water).
Phase IV: Global Project Fund (Invent.City Capital)	Infrastructure Funds, Green Bonds, Sovereign Wealth	$1.0B+ Deployment Pipeline	Direct project financing for cities purchasing turnkey urban solutions from showroom vendors.

Anchor Corporate Sponsorships & Long-Term Showroom Leases

Trade Mart Vendor Leases: Annual recurring membership and space fees from anchor vendors in key sectors (Microgrid/Power, Water Systems, Logistics, Mobility).
Exclusive Category Partners: Tier-1 technology companies (e.g., enterprise AI, telecom, energy providers) co-branding sector command centers and demonstration labs.

Civic & Public Economic Incentives (New York State & City)

NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) & Empire State Development: Leveraging tax abatements, PILOT programs, and business creation grants tied to target metrics (11,000+ jobs, $2.5B annual economic output).
Federal Clean Energy Infrastructure Grants: Utilizing IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) / BIL (Broadband and Infrastructure Law) grants for resilience and clean-tech demonstration infrastructure.

“Invent.City Project Accelerator” (In-House Capital Marketplace)

Financing Marketplace Commission: Taking a placement fee (0.5% – 1.5%) on debt/equity project financing facilitated between visiting municipal procurement officials and global infrastructure funds.
Co-Investment Vehicle: Establishing a sidecar venture/infrastructure fund to invest directly in top-performing urban tech companies demonstrating inside the mart.

B2B Event Revenue & Ticketing

Global Urban Innovation Summit & Expos: Year-round hosting of international mayoral delegations, corporate procurement summits, and sector trade shows.
Digital Twin & Simulation SaaS Subscriptions: Monetizing virtual access to the digital command center and streetscape simulation software for cities not visiting physically.

Near-Term (Months 0–12):

Secure seed funding from anchor real estate partners and establish non-binding LOIs with 20–30 core vendor sponsors.

Medium-Term (Months 12–36):

Finalize NYC tax-incentive packages (IDA/PILOT), issue tax-exempt municipal bonds, and execute anchor leases in Lower Manhattan.

Long-Term (Months 36+):

Launch the global infrastructure debt marketplace to monetize municipal transaction flows originating from mart demonstrations.

Capital is the gap between interest and deployment — pilots stall because nobody funds the step after them. Invent.City connects investors to the initiative itself, to individual showrooms, to real estate activation, and to the projects buyers commit to.

Cities are the buyer, the regulator, and the problem owner at once. Invent.City engages public partners at city, state, federal, and international level — as customers, as hosts for demonstrations, and as the source of the problems this market exists to solve.

Evidence and access come from organizations already in the field. Invent.City partners with and that identify needs, build evidence, convene communities, and represent the residents these systems ultimately serve.

The Trade Mart needs its suppliers in the room before it needs anything else. Invent.City recruits companies across that sell, buy, finance, insure, design, install, and operate city systems. Founding partners bring products, demand, implementation capacity, and credibility.

Invent.City is evaluating FiDi buildings and public spaces for visibility, access, flexibility, cost, ownership readiness, and event capacity. A three-stage screens for meaningful vacancy, scores Trade Mart suitability, and sorts each property into an anchor, cluster, flex, or pop-up tier. The portfolio expands and contracts with FiDi's real estate market rather than competing with it.

FiDi Venue

4. BENEFITS

Cities Get Solutions. New York Gets a New Economic Engine.

Base-case annual public revenue reconciliation	Amount
Tourism taxes and feesFrom 4.1, excluding tourism PIT	$ 86,751,875
Trade Mart modeled public revenueFrom 4.2, including payroll-related and sales taxes	$ 132,569,719
Gross recurring NYC real-estate revenue capacityFrom 4.3; gross capacity, not net incremental revenue	$ 70,675,722
Combined modeled public revenue and gross capacity$ 219,321,594 modeled taxes and fees + $ 70,675,722 gross capacity	$ 289,997,316

How these numbers were built

These are planning scenarios, not forecasts. The headline combines the base tourism, Trade Mart, and real-estate cases. Tourism uses assumptions for visitor volume, visitor mix, length of stay, spending, taxability, economic impact, and jobs. The Mart case uses assumptions for occupied area, job density, wages, procurement, and effective tax rates. The real-estate case uses three MSF with assumptions for rent, operating costs, capitalization, assessment, tax rates, phase-in, and commercial-rent-tax coverage. Gross real-estate capacity is not net incremental revenue: existing assessments, taxes, exemptions, abatements, and transitional values have not been deducted. Sections 4.1–4.3 show the assumptions, formulas, and sources.

700K annual visitors $1.31B annual impact 6,173 supported jobs

Tourism summary	Downside	Base	Upside
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	$379,000,000	$864,500,000	$1,620,000,000
Total economic impact ($/yr)From 4.1.2 Details: Table 2B, Total economic impact	$576,080,000	$1,314,040,000	$2,462,400,000
Tourism-supported jobsFrom 4.1.2 Details: Table 3, Tourism-supported jobs	2,706	6,173	11,567
Modeled taxes and fees ($/yr, no PIT)From 4.1.2 Details: Table 4C, Tax totals roll-up	$38,518,438	$86,751,875	$160,889,063
Rounded taxes and fees ($/yr, no PIT)From 4.1.2 Details: Table 4C, rounded grand total	$38.5M	$86.8M	$160.9M
Tourism PIT is excluded pending a separate tourism wage-and-residency model. Jobs scale with direct traveler spending using NYC's 2025 spending-to-jobs ratio. Scenarios assume 1.25 guests per occupied room and a 75% taxable share of non-hotel spending.

7,000 direct jobs $1.2B direct payroll $1.5B direct activity

Trade Mart summary	Base
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, Base-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.

3 MSF back to work $1.8B implied asset value $70.7M/yr recurring NYC revenue

Real estate summary	Downside	Base	Upside
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 3.0 MSF	$102,000,000	$106,860,000	$111,750,000
Illustrative implied value at 6.0% cap ($)From 4.3.2 Details: Table 2C, Implied value from capitalized NOI	$1,700,000,000	$1,781,000,000	$1,862,500,000
Modeled recurring NYC revenue capacity ($/yr)From 4.3.2 Details: Table 4C, Total modeled recurring NYC revenue capacity	$66,744,900	$70,675,722	$74,303,100
Rounded recurring NYC revenue capacity ($/yr)From 4.3.2 Details: Table 4C, rounded total	$66.7M	$70.7M	$74.3M
Gross capacity is shown separately from modeled taxes and fees because current assessments, existing taxes, exemptions, abatements, and transitional values have not been deducted.

What we need now

Invent.City is assembling phase one: [X] square feet in FiDi, [N] founding showrooms, and the first twenty roundtables. [$X] opens the doors. Companies — take a founding showroom and help set the scorecard. Investors — fund phase one, or a single showroom. Property owners — put a floor, a storefront or a lobby to work. Agencies — bring a procurement problem and host a pilot. Nonprofits and universities — bring evidence, access, and the people these systems serve. Bring a challenge. Build the market. tom@invent.city

@invent.city