CUOMO AWARDS $17.2 MILLION TO HELP CREATE JOBS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SEATTLE

WASHINGTON - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today announced $17.2 million in assistance for Seattle to redevelop an eight-acre blighted industrial site into a new shopping center and office complex. The project will create an estimated 350 jobs and stimulate more than $24 million in additional investment.

"One of the most important challenges facing cities today is cleaning up and revitalizing abandoned industrial and commercial sites that were the engines of America's economic greatness in our past," Cuomo said. "Working in partnership with communities, we can transform these areas into generators of new jobs and new prosperity in our future."

Cuomo made the announcement today in a telephone conference call with Senator Patty Murray, Congressman Jim McDermott and Seattle Mayor Paul Schell.

Senator Murray said: "These funds will bring the Rainier Valley new jobs and greater opportunities. This is a wonderful example of how government, the business community and industry can work together to benefit the greater good."

Congressman McDermott said: "This HUD assistance will ensure completion of this key project in Southeast Seattle, an area that has been ignored for too long. Rainier Court will bring the kinds of goods and services that often are denied to an inner city, and anchor the recent new investment in this area by its long-term residents as well as new immigrants."

Seattle will receive a $1.75 million Brownfields Economic Development Initiative grant and $15.5 million in loan guarantees from HUD to renovate an eight-acre industrial site that was once home to a welding shop, automotive distributor, industrial tooling company and dump truck service operation. The new project is the Rainier Court Shopping Center, a 181,735 square-foot shopping and office complex that will feature large anchor retail stores, smaller stores, office space and a 10-screen movie theater.

The redevelopment will clean up properties located between neighborhood homes, the nearby school and an existing shopping center. This will eliminate a dangerous pathway for residents who were exposed to asbestos, lead, PCBs and petroleum products on the site.

On top of the HUD assistance, businesses and other local, state and federal government agencies are expected to invest more than $24 million in additional funds in the Seattle brownfield area. The total project is expected to create an estimated 350 jobs, some of which will go to participants in the Welfare-To-Work program.

Brownfield sites include abandoned factories and other industrial facilities, gasoline stations, oil storage facilities, dry cleaning stores, and other businesses that dealt with polluting substances. Since 1993, the Clinton Administration has taken a series of actions to clean up and redevelop brownfields and return them to productive use, including: providing seed money to communities for revitalization; removing regulatory barriers to redevelopment; and providing a targeted tax incentive to businesses that purchase and clean up the sites.

The loan guarantees, also known as the Section 108 Program, provide communities with a source of financing for job creation, housing rehabilitation, and construction of public facilities and large-scale development projects.

Vice President Gore announced the Clinton Administration's Brownfields National Partnership in 1997 to bring together resources of over 20 federal agencies to address brownfield cleanup and redevelopment issues in a coordinated approach. HUD works with other federal agencies to provide communities with financial and technical assistance to revitalize brownfields.

Cuomo accompanied President Clinton last month on the President's New Markets Tour of economically distressed communities that highlighted the economic potential for investment in underserved markets. The President is proposing tax incentives and investment tools that will make it more attractive for corporate America to search for opportunities in such communities.

A recent HUD report titled New Markets: The Untapped Retail Buying Power In America's Inner Cities showed that America's inner city neighborhoods - with $331 billion in annual retail purchasing power - hold major economic potential for retail business growth. The report found:

• Inner city neighborhoods possess enormous retail purchasing power - estimated at $331 billion last year, or one-third of the $1.1 trillion total for the central cities in which those neighborhoods are located. The report suggests that businesses not yet operating in inner cities should not ignore that large domestic market.
• Despite their huge buying power, many inner city communities are "under-retailed," with sales that fall significantly short of residents' retail purchasing power. The report makes clear that there a large inner city consumer market worth competing for.

Content Archived: January 20, 2009