New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced the winners of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI), with grants totalling $200 million.
Participating communities were nominated by the state’s ten Regional Economic Development Councils (REDCs) based on the downtown’s potential for transformation. Within each region, the REDC nominated either two downtowns to receive $10 million each or one downtown to receive an award of $20 million to develop a downtown strategic investment plan and implement key catalytic projects that advance the community’s vision for revitalization.
Here are the Round 5 winners:
Capital Region
Tannersville’s Painted Village DRI District ($10 million)
Within the Catskills Forest Preserve, Tannersville envisions their compact, walkable and diverse downtown as a nimble coalition of businesses, private foundations, community members, elected leaders, and social innovators who work side-by-side to unleash entrepreneurship and make the Village extraordinary for everyone. With a dedication to becoming a four-season recreation and vacation community that is still affordable for local, long-term residents, the Village has worked hard to revitalize their downtown, seeing more than $126 million in recent and upcoming investment. Continuing this dedication, Tannersville aims to create new affordable housing, expand community services, and increase arts and cultural amenities.
Troy’s Riverwalk DRI District ($10 million)
Troy’s Riverwalk DRI District includes the heart of the Downtown Troy Historic District, is compact and walkable, contains a large portion of the city’s arts, cultural, and entertainment assets, and includes 1.6 miles of unified riverfront. With significant recent and ongoing investment, including market-rate and affordable housing, new commercial space, and trail and public space improvements, Troy aims to leverage significant private investment to create new mixed-use space, increase public gathering space, and solve their lack of parking in order to achieve their goal of using public spaces and urban amenities to connect economic catalysts, neighborhoods, and innovation centers around their destination riverfront.
New York City
Manhattan’s Chinatown ($20 million)
Chinatown aims to build on their history as a cultural destination in order to preserve and return the neighborhood to a vibrant downtown area. Chinatown has many ongoing and planned projects, including restoration of the Kimlau Memorial Monument, multiple affordable and senior housing projects, and multiple resiliency projects at NYCHA properties. In order to achieve their goals of building an arts and culture economic engine, attracting tourists and regional visitors, solidifying the neighborhood as a cultural home for the 1.2 million AAPIs living in the NY metro area, and improving the quality of life in the neighborhood, Chinatown aims to create new arts and cultural space, improve connectivity, increase housing, and expand green space.
Downtown Haverstraw
Haverstraw’s downtown is a high-density neighborhood close to the Hudson riverfront. The village aims to make this area an inclusive, lively, 21stcentury urban center where residents and visitors can live, work, learn, and play. Haverstraw has stayed committed to downtown revitalization with multiple completed and ongoing projects, including multiple mixed-use developments, a new waterfront esplanade, and streetscape improvements. Building on this work, Haverstraw aims to redevelop vacant space, expand public space, increase the economic activity of and access to the waterfront, as well as embrace their diverse history.
Ossining’s Downtown Waterfront District
With a downtown that is on both the State and the National Historic Registers, the Village of Ossining intends to use their existing assets, including a rich history, public amenities, engaged residents and an innovative business community, to build on previous successes and strengthen their downtown to have the greatest economic impact. Previous successes include a mixed-use development with a waterfront park, promenade, beach, and fishing pier on a former brownfield, the Sing Sing Kill Greenway, and the ongoing Sing Sing Prison Museum project. Building on these projects, Ossining aims to improve community services, increase access to and the economic impact of the waterfront, expand public space, and repurpose areas for development.
Western New York
Downtown North Tonawanda
North Tonawanda aims to make their downtown a vibrant, mixed-use district centered on the confluence of two waterfronts: the Niagara River and the Erie Canal, in order to create a unified and interconnected environment as the “Gateway to the Erie Canal”. Downtown North Tonawanda is unique as it includes the 80-acre Tonawanda Island and is itself a local historic preservation district. With a demonstrated ability to pursue and implement large projects, including the $2.5 million Smart Growth Community Fund, the Remington Lofts project, and the $20 million River Road Apartments, and multiple ongoing projects, including the River Road Reconstruction project, $24 million Timber Shore project, and $3 million YWCA of the Niagara Frontier building, North Tonawanda wants to increase public/green space, improve senior housing, and improve infrastructure to support further development.
Buffalo’s Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood
Located on the City of Buffalo’s East Side and one of its oldest neighborhoods, the Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood is the focus of Buffalo’s plan for a downtown investment. The Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood, with a relatively dense stock of largely historic commercial buildings, set forth a vision of creating special urban places, key park spaces, retail-oriented streets, improved neighborhood connections, bike and pedestrian connections, streetscape improvements, and public realm improvements. This area has seen many completed and ongoing investments, including multiple mixed-use redevelopments, a community health hub, and improvements to the Broadway Market and Buffalo Central Terminal. Building on this momentum, Buffalo aims to encourage more redevelopment of vacant structures, provide better connections between anchors and amenities through greenspace, increase affordable housing opportunities, and enhance the streetscape.
Finger Lakes Region
Rochester’s Center City
With a 17% population increase since 2010 and 50% of the population being aged 20-34 years old, Rochester’s downtown has seen significant private and public investment in the last 15 years, including housing, a hotel, updates to the convention center, and the Sister Cities Bridge. However, there are still buildings in need of redevelopment on the east side of downtown, which are contained within the DRI area. Rochester aims to improve streetscapes and public spaces, upgrade the built environment, and increase pedestrian access/connections in order to catalyze further investment in the area and put the finishing touches on the city’s downtown revitalization.
Downtown Newark
Downtown Newark is a compact, walkable, well-defined, and concentrated area that the village aims to make the heartbeat of a lively, world-class village and the cultural and commercial center of the Finger Lakes region with the Erie Canal serving as the village’s center of commerce. With multiple, large anchor institutions and ongoing job growth, Newark has seen nearly $220 million invested in the village in the last 10 years. A robust public engagement process led the village to identify needs for infill mixed-use development, more housing for workforce and seniors, and new space for indoor recreation and wellness with a focus on utilizing space along the Erie Canal.
Central New York
Downtown Oneida
As the only city in Madison County, downtown Oneida is a 250-acre historic, dense, and walkable section of the city with a mix of commercial, professional, residential, and industrial uses. The city aims to energize connections, such as between their strong arts communities and their nationally-designated historic districts, to enhance cultural and entertainment activities and strengthen the local economy. With multiple completed and ongoing projects, including a new modern public library, upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant, and new trail connections, and a surge in job growth, Oneida wants to continue the momentum by improving their parks and infrastructure and creating new mixed-use spaces.
Syracuse’s Southwest Gateway District
With an influx of younger residents, Syracuse seeks to expand their vibrant downtown to the South and West of the Central Business District (CBD) into an urban, walkable part of the city. Both recent investments, including the restoration of Hotel Syracuse and the opening of the Salt City Market, and investments currently in the pipeline have created momentum for the city to redevelop underutilized/vacant properties, improve public infrastructure and green spaces, and increase affordable housing. With the support of the community, which experiences high levels of concentrated poverty, the Southwest Gateway District is poised to become a growing downtown community with seamless connections to the CBD and the residential neighborhoods towards the South and West.
Downtown Endicott
In response to the growth of their Advanced Manufacturing I-District, Endicott aims to create a synergistic and complementary relationship between the downtown area and the companies in the district by creating a 21st century downtown suited for 21st century jobs. Endicott is already well-underway with this plan as they have seen over $600 million invested in the village in the past 10 years and have public and private projects ongoing or expected within the next 3 years that total $300 million in investment. Building on this momentum, Endicott wants to create new food and entertainment opportunities, improve connectivity, and increase mixed-use space.
Downtown Norwich
With a location that is within a 50-mile radius of major Upstate cities, including Syracuse and Utica, Norwich wants to build on their history of innovation and creativity to become an “authentic urban substitute” in response to a changing American economy. Norwich has focused its efforts on their downtown area, including the mixed-use redevelopment of an old school building, improving connectivity between the local museums, and focusing on clean energy development, which has brought 3 solar farms within 5 miles of the city since 2019. Building on these efforts, the city aims to support new businesses, expand entertainment options, improve bike/pedestrian safety and accessibility, and increase mixed-use space.
