| HUD No. 00-258 | |
| Further Information: | For Release |
| In the Washington, DC area: 202/708-0685 | Monday |
| Or contact your local HUD office | September 25, 2000 |
CUOMO PRESENTS $10 MILLION TO WEST HOLLYWOOD FOR JOBS AND COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today presented a check for $10 million in HUD grants and guaranteed loans to Los Angeles County for West Hollywood. The money will be used to revitalize the community and create more than 700 jobs.
Cuomo provided the funding during the second day of a three-day swing through 20 California cities.
"These grants will put more people to work in West Hollywood and its surrounding communities. Working, self-sufficient parents not only invigorate families, but the neighborhoods in which they live. It's a ripple effect - put more people to work and entire communities become rejuvenated," Cuomo said.
The assistance, which was awarded in August, is in two forms: The Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI) grant and Section 108 economic development loan guarantees.
West Hollywood, through the County of Los Angeles, received a $2 million BEDI grant and a $8 million Section 108 loan to construct Gateway Center, a four-story, mixed-use complex that will include 80,000 square-feet of office space, 210,000 square-feet of retail space and 35,000 square-feet for restaurants. Once completed, the center is expected to generate $1.7 million annually in new tax revenues, create about 750 new jobs, and be used to leverage for another $66 million in private and public investments. The redeveloped area is the current location of a number of manufacturing plants, automotive repair shops, metal plating facilities and utility companies.
Brownfields are abandoned industrial sites such as gasoline stations, oil storage facilities, dry cleaning stores, and other businesses that handled polluting substances. Since 1993, the Clinton Administration has taken a number 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 targeted tax incentives to businesses that purchase and clean-up the sites.
Section 108 guaranteed loans are loans to communities at reduced interest rates to promote economic development, expand the amount of housing or improve public facilities.
Cuomo delivered Monday's keynote address in Los Angeles at Creating Partnerships for Renewed Hope, a HUD-sponsored conference of community and faith-based organizations, public officials and business leaders. Cuomo's three-day, 20 city trip concludes Tuesday in Los Angeles at Closing the Gap: Investing in America's Communities, an economic development conference that will focus on effective strategies, tools, and resources for creating partnerships that address the needs of America's distressed communities.
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