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

Cities are growing fast, and so is their need for housing, power, water and transport. and are changing what cities need, what they buy and how fast they must act.

AI and climate change as forces shaping city needs

Rising Temperatures

Breaking 1.5°C

Global temperature trajectories under climate targets and current policies

Climate damage is mounting while policy falls behind. ended without an agreed roadmap off fossil fuels, and has reversed course. Current policies point well past 1.5°C.

Floods, heat and water shortages already threaten lives and economies. Swiss Re estimated that if warming goes unchecked, global GDP could be lower by 2050.

AI can cut energy bills, speed permits, prevent infrastructure failures and lift productivity. It can also multiply risk. Deployment is costly, jobs are exposed and failures can cascade across city systems. Some researchers warn that advanced AI could pose an .

Cities must build both capability and control.

Invent.City turns this urgent demand into an economic engine for New York. We estimate a annual market for urban solutions by 2050.

in the Financial District become a permanent marketplace. Cities see, test and buy solutions there, and suppliers reach buyers worldwide.

Four steps build the cluster:

Events lead to the Trade Mart, Economic Cluster, and Model City

Invent.City projects for New York 13,173 jobs, $2.4 billion in annual economic activity and $219 million in taxes and fees.

Invent.City grows in four steps. Events test demand at low cost. The Trade Mart turns that demand into a permanent marketplace. The mart seeds an economic cluster, and the cluster turns FiDi into a model city. Each step builds the market for the next.

Invent.City has begun with a series of events organized like the future Trade Mart. The first series focuses on transportation, a basic need for any future city.

Events let Invent.City test demand before committing major capital. That matters because cities are far more complex markets than most products.

The events serve three roles. They gather research from New York's deep civic community, build support for the long-term project and start early revenue.

Each event draws on three themes that will also organize the mart: the cities that buy, the forces that drive demand and the industries that supply. Topics include future cities, AI in cities, the climate crisis and rising energy demand.

2025

Cities are Invent.City's ultimate buyers, and the market is growing fastest in Africa and South Asia. Lagos has about 15 million people today and is projected to reach nearly 90 million by 2100.

These cities need working systems faster than conventional procurement can deliver them. Moving people and goods is a major need. Bikeshare and light freight can expand mobility without widening roads.

Some of these solutions also fit New York, such as alternatives to the BQX streetcar. Invent.City's roundtables on bikeshare and micro cargo produced one such idea: the urban hub.

Forces shape what cities will buy next, and climate and AI lead. Energy demand, demographics, technology, economics, geopolitics and social change shape it too. The rise of cities in Africa and Asia, and the pressures driving migration into cities, are part of that picture.

Invent.City's events focus on climate and AI while tracking the other forces. Those signals point events, suppliers and capital toward the most urgent purchases. shows how quickly the industries behind them can scale.

CLIMATE
CRISIS

ATMOSPHERIC CO₂

CO₂ sets new records

1958–2026 mean

SEA LEVEL • GLOBAL MEAN

Seas rise faster

Observed to 2100

WARMING PATHWAYS

Warming is still a choice

Two warming paths

ENERGY +
RESOURCES

LEVELIZED ENERGY COST

Renewables win on cost

Costs to 2050

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

EV adoption is uneven

New sales to 2035

CITY HEAT

Local warming

Illustrative; source pending

TECHNOLOGY +
INFRASTRUCTURE

AI • ADVANCED CITIES

AI optimizes city systems

Across city systems

AI • DEVELOPING CITIES

AI stretches scarce capacity

City services

AI • NEW YORK CITY

NYC’s AI upside

Annual value

PEOPLE +
SOCIETY

POPULATION • URBAN SHARE

Growth lands in cities

Urban growth share

GLOBAL CITIES

Africa reshapes the century

Top cities in 2100

GLOBAL MIGRATION

Displacement keeps rising

Climate and conflict

ECONOMY +
GEOPOLITICS

ENERGY • ELECTRICITY

Electricity Demand

Global demand to 2100

TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION

Crossing the chasm

Toward mainstream

WAR AND DISASTER

Damaged cities

Urban damage zones

A trade mart is a proven business model: a permanent marketplace of showrooms, demonstrations and industry events. Buyers compare offerings, meet the people behind them and build relationships in one place.

Invent.City applies that model to urban solutions. Its buyers include city agencies, building owners, developers, utilities and others responsible for how cities work. The mart gives this diverse market one place to discover, evaluate and buy.

RAI

Amsterdam / Brussels

Chelsea Harbour

London

The Mart

Chicago

Dallas Market Center

Dallas / Austin

PDC

Los Angeles

World Trade Centre

Dubai

Hannover Messe

Hanover

AmericasMart

Atlanta

FiDi offers available space, excellent transit, proximity to government and finance, and a world-famous address. Nearly 27% of office space in the project area is vacant, so underused floors can become showrooms and demonstration spaces.

Subways, ferries and bikeshare connect the district to the rest of the city. City Hall and Wall Street put exhibitors close to decision-makers and capital. Many buildings could host the mart, and New York itself can serve as a testing ground and showcase.

Companies will lease and run showrooms that make their solutions tangible. Visitors could walk through an energy-efficient apartment, explore a working urban farm, feel a cooler streetscape or try a simulated city operations center.

New York's World's Fairs set the precedent. General Motors' Futurama in 1939 carried visitors over a vast model of future cities and highways. General Electric's Progressland in 1964–65 used a rotating theater to show electricity changing daily life.

Invent.City brings that approach to today's urban challenges. Each demonstration pairs the experience with evidence on performance, cost and maintenance, plus direct access to the suppliers who can deliver.

Urban transportation and transit systems showroom

Digital media, virtual showrooms and events extend the mart beyond FiDi and across time zones. Before a visit, buyers can explore solutions online, find suppliers and book meetings. Afterward, they can revisit demonstrations, share them with colleagues and keep purchases or pilots moving.

Media attracts new audiences, events give buyers reasons to return, and virtual showrooms stay open around the clock. FiDi anchors a market that reaches well beyond the district.

A cluster needs room to grow, and FiDi has it. Cushman & Wakefield counted about of direct and sublease vacancy across the Financial East and Insurance submarkets in Q2 2026. Much of that space is poorly suited to housing.

The planning case assigns 1 million square feet to Invent.City and 2 million to supporting offices. Existing space lets the cluster launch quickly, keep startup costs low and grow with demand.

Housing remains critical, and conversions should go ahead where buildings fit. For space that doesn't convert well, Trade Mart showrooms may be the highest and best use, and they're faster and cheaper than conversion.

Current NYC Initiatives

Buyers want to see a solution working before they commit. FiDi's public projects can provide that proof.

At Chambers Street, the MTA and NYC DCAS are exploring a thermal-energy system that could capture subway heat to serve nearby municipal buildings. FiDi also hosts a freight microhub, Blue Highway marine freight and coastal-resilience work.

Invent.City will add projects of its own and connect them all with suppliers, buyers and capital. That way, each public investment also helps build the market.

public toilet

The long-term aim is to make FiDi a model city of the future. The Trade Mart is the first act of : one focused investment that can spread to streets, public space, transit and district systems. The organically growing cluster provides the economic foundation.

Over time, the model could add housing, low-impact transportation and urban-agriculture jobs supplying city-owned stores. It could also become a template for AI in city operations.

GREENFIELD VISION

NEOM

Built from zero.

GREENFIELD VISION

Telosa

Seeking a site.

CITY BENCHMARK

Singapore

Integrated systems.

CITY BENCHMARK

Curitiba

Transit planning.

MASTER-PLANNED DISTRICT

Masdar City

Low-carbon systems.

MASTER-PLANNED DISTRICT

Songdo

Smart systems.

FiDi can become a real-world test site for urban solutions. In this dense, working district, companies can demonstrate technologies in place while city teams evaluate them for purchase and wider use.

The lab could connect clean energy, water reuse, rooftop food, car-free streets and mobility with neighborhood hubs for deliveries, waste and public toilets. Together, these systems would show how a city can work better.

Residents should help shape what gets tested. FiDi is part of Community Board 1, near the Alfred E. Smith Houses, Chinatown, Battery Park City and Tribeca. Regular input from residents, businesses, property owners and public agencies can guide the agenda and help successful solutions scale.

Every part of this plan brings people back to the same blocks. The Trade Mart draws tenants, buyers and visitors every week. That repeat demand fills offices, supports hospitality and makes public space safer, building a stronger FiDi economy.

Reclaiming the Streets → Vision Zero Reimagined →

Invent.City convenes roundtables to test demand, one issue at a time. The series builds on a 2023–2024 market test on micro cargo and urban hubs.

The roundtables follow the same structure as the Trade Mart: the industries that supply cities and the forces shaping their future. Each one focuses on a specific risk or opportunity, and AI runs through all of them.

Every session brings buyers, suppliers and investors together around a single issue. Each one publishes the buyer needs, pilot opportunities and next steps it identifies.

The roundtables begin in early 2027.

Invent.City’s proposed Future City exhibition would show how the decisions cities make today will shape life for generations. Organized around twelve industries and the forces transforming cities, especially , it would use immersive visions of New York, Lagos, and London in 2100 to explore and possibilities. The exhibition would also make the wider proposal tangible, showing how the Trade Mart, industry clusters, and model city would work together.

Financed primarily through sponsorships, the exhibition would give companies a platform to demonstrate solutions and connect with visitors, buyers, researchers, and prospective Trade Mart exhibitors. A web presence linked to the Invent.City website and a regular newsletter would extend its reach, sustain engagement between visits, and build participation in the exhibition, Trade Mart, and clusters.

FiDi offers potential exhibition venues within an established tourism destination. The Downtown Alliance reports 9.3 million tourists and 11.3 million visitors to Lower Manhattan in 2024. Federal Hall recorded approximately 66,000 visits in 2025, according to Park Atlas’s compilation of National Park Service statistics. The exhibition would connect this historic setting with a new reason to explore FiDi: experiencing the future of cities and meeting the companies helping to shape it.

Submarket	Address	Available Space	Details
Financial East	28 Liberty Street	186,469 SF	Class A tower; contact JLL for availability details.
Financial East	17 State Street	72,405 SF	Class A office tower at State and Pearl Streets.
Financial East	One New York Plaza	35,382 SF	Class A office tower at the southern tip of Manhattan.
Insurance	33 Maiden Lane	24,200 SF	Full second floor; direct lease, rent negotiable.
Insurance	125 Maiden Lane	18,200 SF	Full 14th floor; direct lease, rent negotiable.

Invent.City’s revenue and funding model combines four channels serving one urban solutions market: a proposed mix of earned revenue and conditional public support. A related investment channel links the project accelerator to a sidecar fund and investment in participating companies. The public-support rationale is a base-case model of 13,173 jobs and $2.4B in annual activity. This is a conceptual funding model: no funding shares or commitments are shown, and sidecar investment is distinct from operating revenue.

Annual space + membership fees across 12 industries.

AI, telecom + energy partners co-brand showrooms and labs.

City + state incentives, PILOTs and business grants.

Federal infrastructure + clean-energy grants, where funded and eligible.

Proposed placement fee: 0.5–1.5% of financing arranged between city buyers and infrastructure funds.

Year-round summits, delegations + sector shows.

Digital-twin subscriptions: command center + street simulations for remote cities.

INVENT.CITY

Showrooms · demonstrations · city-buyer connections

Industry	Prospect Companies
Transport	Via — AI-powered transit planning and on-demand public transport. Einride — Electric and autonomous freight, charging and fleet software.
Buildings	BrainBox AI — AI building controls and HVAC optimization. PlanRadar — Digital construction, building operations and reality capture.
Power	Kraken — Digital utility operations and flexible energy management. Schneider Electric — Electrification, distributed energy and AI-ready power infrastructure.
Waste	Greyparrot — AI waste analytics and recycling intelligence. ZenRobotics — AI-powered robotic waste sorting.
Agriculture	Intelligent Growth Solutions — Automated vertical farming and controlled-environment growing. Priva — Greenhouse controls, irrigation and indoor growing systems.
Consumer	Fairphone — Repairable electronics and circular product design. Too Good To Go — Surplus-food marketplace connecting consumers with local businesses.
Energy	Sunfire — Electrolysers for green hydrogen production. Climeworks — Direct-air carbon capture and carbon removal.
Water	FIDO Tech — Acoustic AI for water-network leak detection. TaKaDu — Water-network monitoring and event management.
Wastewater	WASE — Waste-to-energy technology and biogas production. Gradiant — Industrial water treatment and reuse for advanced manufacturing.
AI	Mistral AI — Open models and private enterprise AI deployments. Cohere — Enterprise language models, search and secure AI deployments.
Robotics	ANYbotics — Autonomous inspection robots for industrial infrastructure. NEURA Robotics — Cognitive, humanoid and mobile robots.
Logistics	Wingcopter — Delivery drones for medical supplies and last-mile logistics. CargoKite — Low-emission maritime freight technology.

Invent.City recruits investors to fund the initiative, buildings, showrooms and buyer-backed projects. Four entry points match capital to proven demand and move pilots toward deployment.

Invent.City recruits public partners to define demand, clear delivery paths and support procurement. City agencies remain buyer, regulator and problem owner; state, federal and international partners add authority and financing.

Invent.City recruits and to document needs, test assumptions and convene residents. Their evidence defines the problem before suppliers build.

Invent.City recruits companies that design, build, finance and operate . Founding partners supply products, delivery capacity and operating experience for the first showrooms.

Invent.City connects the Mart to incubators and accelerators that select, fund and test companies for future showrooms. This global pipeline keeps the supplier base current.

100%

Invent.City scores FiDi buildings and public spaces on visibility, access, flexibility, cost, ownership readiness and event capacity. A three-stage selects a phased portfolio of anchor, cluster, flex and pop-up sites. The portfolio expands with verified demand.

Base planning scenario: 13,173 jobs; $2.4B in annual direct economic activity; $219M in annual modeled taxes and fees; 700K annual visitors; and 3 MSF of real-estate capacity.

This is a planning scenario, not a forecast. Activity, taxes and visitor spending are annual flows. Space is capacity, and $71M is gross recurring capacity, not net new revenue. These measures describe different outcomes; do not add them.

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

How these numbers were built

These are planning scenarios, not forecasts. The visitor case models volume, stay, spending, taxability and jobs. The Trade Mart case models area, job density, wages, procurement and tax rates. The real-estate case models rent, operating costs, capitalization, assessment, tax rates, phase-in and commercial rent tax.

Gross real-estate capacity is not net incremental revenue. Sections 4.1–4.3 publish the assumptions, formulas and sources. Existing assessments, taxes, exemptions, abatements and transitional values remain outside the estimate.

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 on-site jobs $1.51B annual direct activity $132,569,719 modeled public revenue

Trade Mart summary	Base
On-site jobs (1,000 showroom + 6,000 supporting offices)From 4.2.2 Details: Table 1, Jobs based on area	7,000
On-site 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.

The 3 MSF is 1 MSF of Trade Mart plus 2 MSF of supporting offices it draws in. Invent.City turns empty space into productive capacity in phases, not all at once.

3 MSF back to work $1.8B illustrative implied value $71M/yr gross capacity

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.

Phase one: $50–100M turns urgency into a market. Open the first FiDi floors, launch twelve founding showrooms and convene twenty buyer roundtables.

Companies — claim a showroom. Investors — fund demand. Owners — put space to work. Agencies — host a pilot. Universities and nonprofits — bring the evidence.