FUND TIMES: News surveys the city projects boosted by Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Council
Projects awarded includ QueensWay, Brooklyn Brewery, Urban League Harlem redevelopment, N.Y. Wheel in Staten Island and Arthur Ave. Retail Market in the Bronx.
From the fantastical planned 60-story ferris wheel in Staten Island to an ambitious proposal for an elevated park in Queens, a diverse number of community and economic development projects received a vital infusion of money last week from the state.
Gov. Cuomo announced $709.2 million in funding through the the Regional Economic Development Council’s latest round of grants.
Cuomo developed the 10 regional councils in 2011 so that local business and community leaders will have a say in how state economic development monies are awarded. More than $2 billion in grants were distributed during the last three rounds of awards.
“Each council presented bold ideas for how to create jobs and new opportunities in their communities,” said Cuomo. He said the program has helped “drive an economic renaissance in every region of the state.”
More than 70 projects in the city will receive a collective $61.2 million — though critics were quick to note that several other regions across the state landed more moolah.
Some of the funds will be used locally to train unemployed workers and veterans, fix building facades and boost other needed programs.
There are some big-ticket winners in the five boroughs. The council aimed $1.5 million toward the redevelopment of the Victoria Theater in Harlem and $1 million toward the conversion of an industrial building at the Brooklyn Navy Yard into a technology and manufacturing hub. These and others are certain to garner citywide attention, as they take shape, and the Daily News decided to take a look:
DORAN JONES TESTING ($1.8M)
Here’s a tech-sector expansion that promises to benefit borough residents the old-fashioned way.
The Urban Development Center in Port Morris, run by Doran Jones Testing in partnership with nonprofit Per Scholas, will be staffed by 300 students, many of them Bronxites, who graduate the school’s Software Testing Education Program.
Continue Reading