CUOMO AWARDS $11.75 MILLION TO HELP CREATE JOBS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN LOS ANGELES

WASHINGTON - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today announced $11.75 million in assistance for Los Angeles to turn vacated railroad property into an industrial park. The project will create an estimated 1,000 jobs and stimulate more than $56.3 million in additional investment.

Cuomo made the announcement today during a conference call with Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard and Los Angeles Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, Rocky Delgadillo.

"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."

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer welcomed the announcement: "The River Station Industrial Park project provides a great opportunity for economic development in Los Angeles. This HUD grant will allow the project to go forward with its plan to redevelop vacated railroad property into an industrial park, which is expected to generate thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars of investment in the area."

Congresswoman Roybal-Allard said: "The federal funding will allow the city of Los Angeles to transform a 32-acre vacant railroad yard into a 954,000 square foot industrial park. Not only will this project eliminate a long-standing eye-sore in the community, but it is expected to create 1,000 new jobs and generate $56.3 million in additional public and private investment."

Los Angeles will receive a $1.25 million Brownfields Economic Development Initiative grant and $10.5 million in loan guarantees for the Cornfields Site: River Station Industrial Park Project. The project will provide the city with an opportunity to revitalize 32 acres of vacated railroad property and develop it into a 954,000-square-feet industrial park that will target manufacturing, food processing, distribution and import/export companies.

For more than 100 years, the Cornfield Site was a railroad freight depot and switching yard. The site is located in a Federal Empowerment Zone and State Enterprise Zone and has one of the City's highest unemployment and poverty areas. The Private Industry Council will work with the One-Stop Workforce and Industry Network Centers located near the project site to train workers for job placement. Key partners for this $68 million project include: HUD, EDA, the City of Los Angeles, PIC, Majestic Realty Co./River Station LLC, Union Bank of California, and Los Angeles Community Development Bank.

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