According to the study, the center's 12 resident organizations, which include the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and New York City Ballet, spent $530 million last year, including $350 million paid to 9,000 full-time and part-time employees. The center's spending indirectly prompted another $610 million in sales in the area.

In addition, 4.7 million visitors to Lincoln Center spent or generated indirectly $380 million for restaurants, hotels, retail stores, and other businesses in the metropolitan region.

"Since Lincoln Center opened in 1962, it has played a key role in the global cultural tourism so essential to New York City life," said Reynold Levy, the center's president, in a statement. "By being such a major contributor to the City's cultural and intellectual vibrancy, Lincoln Center enhances New York's attractiveness to residents, tourists, and business travelers from all over the world."

The study, commissioned by Lincoln Center from the Economic Development Research Group and Mt. Auburn Associates, also found that Lincoln Center has contributed to a rapid increase in property values in the surrounding neighborhood since its founding in 1963. Property values in the Lincoln Square area have risen 2,608 percent over the last 40 years, in contrast to an increase of 447 percent for the rest of Manhattan.