Empire State Development (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York's two principal economic development public-benefit corporations, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the New York Job Development Authority (JDA). The New York State Department of Economic Development (DED) is a department of the New York government that has been operationally merged into ESD. ESD gives its mission as promoting the state economy, encouraging business investment and job creation, and supporting local economies through loans, grants, tax credits, real estate development, marketing and other forms of assistance. History The state Division of Commerce was created in 1941 and subsumed several state bureaus and the Bureau of Industry. It was replaced in 1944 by the state Department of Commerce. The New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) was created in 1968 by the York State Urban Development Corporation Act. On August 31, 1987, the Omnibus Economic Development Act created the state Department of Economic Development (DED). In 1975, the UDC was reorganized and its mission expanded from developing housing to economic development. In 1995, the functions of the DED and the UDC were consolidated, along with the Job Development Authority (JDA) and the Science and Technology Foundation (STF). UDC's directors decided that the corporation would do business as the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC). Some functions of JDA and STF were folded into ESDC and DED, respectively, and the collective entity was branded as Empire State Development (ESD). In November 1999 the STF was abolished, and in 2011 the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) was merged with DED. In its early years the UDC was responsible for "the last significant program of publicly assisted housing in the United States". At the time it was primarily aimed at urban renewal in New York City although its bonds were to be used statewide. Virtually all state subsidized housing built since 1968 was financed through the corporation. In the first years of the UDC, its aim was to facilitate large-scale low-income housing developments in urban neighborhoods that had traditionally been white and middle-class. In 1970, Business Week claimed that the UDC was "emerging as the most powerful state agency in the country for coping with urban growth." By 1974 the investment climate had cooled and in 1975 Governor Hugh Carey asked the Legislature to appropriate $178 million for the UDC, and by 1977 the UDC was