| HUD No. 00-264 | |
| Further Information: | For Release |
| In the Washington, DC area: 202/708-0685 | Tuesday |
| Or contact your local HUD office | September 26, 2000 |
HUD AWARDS $4.5 MILLION TO EL MONTE FOR JOBS AND GROWTH
EL MONTE, Calif. - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today presented a check for $4.5 million in HUD grants and guaranteed loans to El Monte. The money will be used to revitalize communities and create more nearly 400 jobs.
Cuomo provided the funding during the last day of a three-day swing through 20 California cities.
"These grants will put more people to work in El Monte 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 funding, which was awarded in August, is in two forms: a Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI) Program grant and a Section 108 guaranteed loan.
The city of El Monte will receive a $500,000 BEDI grant and $4 million Section 108 loan to develop the Pacific Place project, which will be used to develop an International Business Incubator and Foreign Trade Center. The city will use the funds to assist in the cleanup of brownfields conditions at the site, and enable the redevelopment of existing blighted properties. The city anticipates that at least 355 jobs will be created by the project, and expects to leverage $11.38 million in private financing, and an additional $2.5 million in other public funds.
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 mount of housing or improve public facilities.
Cuomo was featured Monday in Los Angeles at Creating Partnerships for Renewed Hope, a HUD-sponsored conference that will bring together community and faith-based organizations, public officials, business leaders and HUD officials. Cuomo's trip concludes today 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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