Legislation in 1963 (Chapters 932 and 933) established and specified the functions of the Mental Hygiene Facilities Improvement Fund. The Fund was created as a public benefit corporation to expedite planning, construction, and reconstruction of state hospitals, schools, and other mental hygiene care, maintenance, treatment, and research and training facilities. A 1968 law (Chapter 359) abolished the Mental Hygiene Facilities Improvement Fund and created the Health and Mental Hygiene Facilities Improvement Corporation as a public benefit corporation to assist the departments of Health and Mental Hygiene with the management and construction of new, improved health and mental health facilities needed to house the increasing population of mentally ill and disabled persons. This law also authorized assistance to cities and counties in design, construction, and financing of community mental health and retardation facilities. The agency's name was changed to the New York State Facilities Development Corporation in 1973 (Chapter 658). During the 1960s, most of FDC's work was new construction, as part of the state's master plan to upgrade and replace aging public facilities built in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Since the 1970s, emphasis has turned to preservation, renovation, and adaptive reuse of existing facilities. Most of FDC's work, therefore, has changed from long-term new construction projects to shorter-term but higher-volume maintenance and rehabilitation projects. However, FDC continues to be involved in some design and construction of new buildings, especially in support of community residence programs for the mentally and developmentally disabled. The Facilities Development Corporation is governed by five directors: the commissioner of health, the chair of the Inter-Office Coordinating Council of the Department of Mental Hygiene, and three gubernatorial appointees who are traditionally from outside state government. The corporation is directed by an executive director, who is the chief operating officer.
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The Facilities Development Corporation (FDC) serves the design, construction, and real property needs of several state agencies and municipalities. FDC provides capital project management services to acquire, plan, design, construct, renovate, and equip public facilities. FDC's principal state clients are the Office of Mental Health, the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, the Division of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, the Division of Substance Abuse Services, and the Department of Social Services' Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. FDC also provides technical assistance to the Department of Social Services' Homeless Housing and Assistance Program and has provided project management services to over thirty municipalities in the areas of health, mental health, and correctional facilities.
