CUOMO AWARDS $10.9 MILLION TO HELP CREATE JOBS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN PHOENIX

WASHINGTON - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today announced nearly $10.9 million in assistance for Phoenix to create an industrial park at the East Washington Bluff site. The project will create an estimated 255 jobs and stimulate more than $1.8 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."

Phoenix will receive a $1.21 Brownfields Economic Development Initiative grant and $9.68 million in loan guarantees to redevelop a 10-acre site, located within the Phoenix Enterprise Community. The property, formerly owned by the Newall Salvage Company and an auto shedder company, has been a concern of local residents, business owners and the City since the property was abandoned in 1986. HUD funds will be used for land acquisition, remediation, infrastructure improvements and the construction of 200,000 square feet in commercial and industrial space.

The redevelopment project, located in an area with high unemployment and poverty, will require businesses to provide low- and moderate-income people first consideration for jobs. The City will provide employment services to welfare recipients and Section 8 recipients through its Family Self Sufficiency Program and Earn and Respect Now (EARN) Alliance Program, designed to move welfare recipients into full-time employment. Key participants in this $12.7 million project include: the City of Phoenix, the State of Arizona, Maricopa County, EPA, Enviro Industrial Group LLC, and Chicanos Por La Causa.

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 is a large inner city consumer market worth competing for.

Content Archived: January 20, 2009