Hits: 14
WPCNR DEVELOPMENT DAILY. From the Business Council of Westchester. August 12, 2014:
Marsha Gordon, President and CEO of The Business Council of Westchester, today expressed her support for 25 projects – including several key ones in Westchester County — deemed as regional priorities by the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council (MHREDC). As a member of the MHREDC, Gordon played a critical role in choosing the region’s priorities.
The regional projects are for consideration for Round IV of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Regional Council initiative. If awarded funding this fall, the projects have the potential to generate over $600 million in economic activity and the potential to create and retain more than 3,500 full-time jobs as well as create 3,700 construction jobs in the Mid-Hudson Region, which includes Sullivan, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties.
“The priority projects selected represent great opportunities for economic transformation in the Hudson Valley,” Gordon said. “We are especially pleased to see a diversity of projects, representing small business, infrastructure development in our urban centers, mixed use waterfront development, new tourism initiatives and a growing cluster in micro-brewing, which is also a boon to our agriculture and manufacturing sectors.”
Westchester projects include funds for a mixed-use development with commercial space, parking and 400 rental units aimed at revitalizing downtown Yonkers and its waterfront; building a 6,500 square foot waterfront restaurant as part of a larger $65 million mixed-use development along the Ossining waterfront; “daylighting” additional sections (Phase III) of the Saw Mill River in Yonkers; developing a historic museum at Sing Sing Prison; creating a revolving loan fund — a Hudson Valley Opportunity Fund – targeting minority, women and veteran owned small business and social enterprises; and designation of a New York Medical College Biotechnology Incubator to help biotechnology start-ups and emerging firms, among others.
A complete list of the MHREDC’s priorities can be found here.
The Governor has directed up to $750 million in State resources to be made available in 2014 to support the economic development priorities of all 10 regions and spur job creation across the state, including $220 million in competitive funds from Empire State Development.
In the first three rounds of the Regional Council initiative, the Mid-Hudson region was awarded $219.4 million in state support for 232 projects across the region.