Tenors belted and violin strings quivered last night at Lincoln Center. It was a night like any other at the vaunted arts organization – and that was cause for celebration on a day when it released a report on its economic impact in the city, state, and region over the past 40 years. Among its findings is that Lincoln Center spent $1.3 billion at New York City firms and employed 9,000 people in full-time, part-time, and contract positions in 2003 alone.

It made for good conversation last night at Lincoln Center’s black-tie benefit at Avery Fisher Hall, which honored director emerita Daisy Soros.

“It’s visionary and extremely responsible of Lincoln Center to create this kind of detailed profile,” said the commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, Kate Levin, just after arriving at the party.

She added, “On the one hand, the primary importance of arts organizations is the excellence of the arts they produce. On the other hand, in the realm of public funding, it’s important to understand the economic impact. It’s often hard to quantify what they do best.”

“The report is important because cultural and arts facilities don’t get as much recognition as businesses do in terms of contributing to the economy,” noted Glen Weisbrod, the president of the Boston based Economic Development Research Group, which conducted the study.

The study charts incredible growth in real estate valuations in the area. The study found that between 1963 and 2003, taxable property values in the area increased by 2,608%, compared with 447% for the rest of Manhattan. In 2003, Lincoln Square, which is 3% of Manhattan’s landmass, accounted for 4.5% of the island’s taxable property, the report claims.

Between 1998 and 2008, construction activity related to Jazz at Lincoln Center and the 65th Street Redevelopment Project will generate $1.1 billion in spending and jobs, the report estimates.

The executive director of Lincoln Center’s capital campaign, Rosemary Garipoli, said the report is useful to elected officials. “It helps them to justify supporting Lincoln Center,” she said, “to make the case that we’re not just a drain.”

Surrounded by a few hundred of Lincoln Center’s most valued patrons (who raised $900,000 last night), the president of Lincoln Center, Reynold Levy, said the report would help attract private funding, too.

“We’ll be using it to demonstrate to potential donors that in addition to being the premier performing arts center, its economic impact has been extremely positive,” Mr. Levy said.

It was a philanthropist – and a former chairman of Lincoln Center – who summed up the report best. The venerable Martin Segal said, “It’s jobs, tourism, restaurants. It’s about attracting bright young people to this city who want to be here because of the arts and culture.”