Landlords are Rochester's small business kings. There are about 6,000 property owners providing 60 percent of the city's housing, says Bret Garwood, the city's director of development services. Landlords' influence on the condition of many city neighborhoods, housing policies, not to mention property tax revenue is considerable.

That's why the city doesn't want to tick them off - or see them go under.

The city doesn't have complete financial data on how much landlords contribute to its coffers, "but it's safe to say it's significant," says Mike Keen, a city spokesperson.

City officials held a rental summit last week - the first in a series of meetings intended to improve relations with landlords and property managers. The summit was a result of the city's 2007 housing market analysis. The analysis concluded that stabilizing real estate values and improving neighborhoods will require a better alliance with landlords - 26 percent of whom own multiple multifamily buildings.

"What we're really doing is economic development," says Garwood. "What can we do to make landlords more successful business people?"

More flexible city grants and a funding pool would help to make their businesses stronger, some landlords say.

"Landlords, because they are often self-employed, have greater difficulty getting decent loans for property maintenance," says Garwood.

Access to low-interest loans could help prevent property owners from delaying improvements, he says. "We want them to keep their properties up."

Creating a one-stop rental center for both landlords and tenants with information on everything from loans and grants to legal information such as resolving disputes, holding security deposits, and writing leases is another idea that Garwood is considering.

But creating a program that will support all landlords will be complicated by the diversity of owners and the types of housing they provide. Landlords in the Park Avenue area, for example, have a completely different set of needs than landlords in the Plymouth Exchange neighborhood.

But most of the more than 200 landlords in attendance at last week's summit were encouraged.

"This mayor is the first to recognize how important landlords are to the city," says Mary D'Alessandro, president of the New York State Coalition of Property Owners and Businesses. "He understands that working with landlords is important to creating healthy, safe neighborhoods. Like it or not, we're in a partnership."

The city will review the recommendations made during the summit to create the support program, Garwood says, which he hopes to unveil in the fall.