CUOMO ANNOUNCES $40.2 MILLION IN HUD ASSISTANCE TO PHILADELPHIA FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, JOB CREATION AND HOUSING

WASHINGTON -- Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today announced $40.2 million in loan guarantees to Philadelphia to promote economic development, create jobs and expand the supply of affordable housing.

Cuomo said $20.7 million of the loan guarantees will help finance redevelopment of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building into a 590-room hotel, to be called the Loews Philadelphia Hotel. The $105 million project, which is expected to create 415 new jobs, is part of Philadelphia's continuing effort to create additional hotel facilities near the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Most of the jobs will be available to people with low and moderate incomes.

Cuomo said the other $19.5 million of the loan guarantees will finance a dozen initiatives to promote rental housing development and homeownership opportunities for people with low and moderate incomes. Most of the funds will be used to rehabilitate existing housing, but some will be used to build and purchase housing and for relocation payments. New construction will include Phase II of the Poplar Nehemiah Development, located in the North Central Empowerment Zone. Funds will be used for relocation in the Logan Triangle area.

"These loan guarantees will strengthen HUD's partnership with Philadelphia as we work toward our common goal of creating jobs, strengthening the local economy and expanding the supply of affordable housing," Cuomo said. "This is an example of a wise investment by the Clinton Administration that is helping communities around the nation."

"The magnitude of HUD's investment clearly demonstrates the Administration's commitment to economic and housing development all over the city of Philadelphia -- in Center City, in the Empowerment Zone, and in our neighborhoods," said Mayor Edward G. Rendell.

Rendell received the loan guarantees today in a formal presentation at Philadelphia City Hall from Gloria Robinson, Cuomo's Special Assistant for Community Empowerment. Cuomo participated in the event by telephone from Washington.

Robinson was in Philadelphia and Camden today visiting the Philadelphia/Camden Empowerment Zone. She met with Mayor Milton Milan of Camden in the morning and was scheduled to tour the Philadelphia Empowerment Zone with Philadelphia officials in the afternoon.

HUD's Economic Development Loan Guarantee Fund provides communities with a source of financing for job creation, housing rehabilitation, and construction of public facilities and large-scale development projects. The majority of jobs created by each project are available to people with low and moderate incomes.

The loan guarantees, also known as the Section 108 program, save communities money by reducing the interest rate they are charged on loans from commercial lenders. The guarantees also make loans more readily available and often attract other sources of funding from local and state governments, non-profits and the private sector to complete financing for major job creation activities.