Ben Margolis is the Executive Director at Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation. Ben has worked as an independent policy, planning and development consultant, focusing on creative placemaking and promoting the cultural industries as a catalyst for investment. He also provided real estate advisory services to cultural institutions, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and municipal agencies. He was engaged in mapping the future of The Old American Can Factory, an historic center for the creative industries located at the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY.
Beginning in 2015, he expanded his work to The Netherlands where he established a consulting practice (New Netherland Advisors) seeking to learn lessons from and contribute to the European experience of urbanism.
For more than twenty years, Ben has worked on economic development projects in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, serving as Senior Vice President with the New York City Economic Development Corporation, as a special advisor to Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the NYC Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency (SIRR), and as a Senior Research Analyst for The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.
Ben is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Pratt Institute’s Programs for Sustainable Planning & Development (PSPD). He holds a Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) from Columbia University’s School of International Affairs.