Ben Guttmann, the new executive director of the Queens Economic Development Corporation (QEDC), plans to promote the borough as the “best place to do business, the best place to grow a business and the best place to spend your money as a tourist.”
Guttmann, who took the reins at QEDC at the beginning of July after long-time executive director Seth Bornstein stepped down after 16 years, said he is hoping to “put his foot on the gas” by supporting different policies and projects that are beneficial to small business owners and Queens residents alike.
“It’s certainly big shoes to fill when you look at that type of legacy,” Guttmann said of his predecessor. “I’m grateful that he still picks up my calls even though he’s still officially retired.
Guttmann said he plans to follow the path that Bornstein blazed over the past 16 years while also implementing some of his own ideas and policies.
QEDC’s new executive director, who lives in Sunnyside, co-founded the Queens-based marketing agency Digital Natives Group in 2011 and has regularly organized Queens Tech Night, bringing members of the local technology community together. Guttmann joined QEDC as an executive committee member in 2019 and served as board president before accepting the role as executive director.
Guttmann said he wants to use his new role to boost Queens tourism and market the borough as a must-see for any tourist visiting New York City.
“I kind of want to put my foot on the gas a little bit more and say, ‘no visit to New York is complete unless you spend a day in Queens.’ That type of storytelling is something I’m excited for,” he said.
“I think we have the best views in New York City when you look at the waterfront. We have the best food in New York City. We have more major sporting events than any other borough New York City,” he continued. “We also have unparalleled culture, from the institutions to just what happens around every single corner in every neighborhood here.”
For international tourists, Guttmann believes that a visit to the World’s Borough is a no-brainer, noting that Queens boasts two major airports and the second-most hotel rooms of any borough in the city.
Guttmann touted his lived experience growing a business in Queens and said he plans to act as a champion and cheerleader of small businesses throughout the borough.
“When I when I talk to entrepreneurs in this role, I know exactly what they’re going through,” Guttmann said. “I know all about the exciting and confusing early days through to the different headaches that pop up.”
He plans to create more collaborative, entrepreneurial spaces to foster connection between the business community and intends to host more food crawls to promote local restaurants and bars. For example, QEDC has been periodically staging free food crawls in Astoria over the past year to highlight the quality of local food.
“I thought that was such a simple but innovative way to to get people to explore areas of the borough and also businesses in those areas that they may not have been to before,” Guttmann said of the food crawls.
Guttmann described his mission as QEDC’s new executive director is to “make Queens thrive.”
“Our real goal is to be the unfair advantage for why Queens thrives,” Guttmann explained. “We want to be the reason that businesses, customers, and visitors increasingly choose Queens.
“I don’t just want to talk to people in the borough. I want to tell our story to everybody outside of it. I want to make sure that people know that if you want to eat the best meal that you’re going to have as a tourist or if you want to eat the best meal you’re going to have all month as a local, then you’ve got to come to Queens.”
He believes that is an exciting time to do business in Queens and hopes QEDC can make the borough’s case to potential investors and entrepreneurs.
“I want our organization here to be focused on saying, ‘how can we support everybody that’s part of our programs, part of our our constituency? How can we support them so much that everybody else wishes they had a group like ours?'”
