Welcome to the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association

Founded in 1958 by David Rockefeller, the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association is a membership organization of key Downtown stakeholders committed to a vibrant business community. It serves as a networking platform for senior corporate and non-profit executives, as well as a public policy forum and powerful advocate for Lower Manhattan. In the early years, this meant activating the corporate community to reinvigorate Lower Manhattan through paradigm-shifting public projects and prescient private development. The D-LMA 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. It 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 has led the charge for the Fulton Transit Center and a direct connection from Lower Manhattan to Newark Airport, as well as for government projects, policies and reforms that affirm Lower Manhattan as a location of choice 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 with a singularity of purpose — to preserve, prepare and promote Lower Manhattan as a great place to do business.

    “Our early efforts to breathe life into a moribund Downtown community have succeeded beyond our wildest expectations, and Lower Manhattan’s best days are still ahead.” – David Rockefeller, Founding Chairman (2008)