Archive: CT.Gov - Gov. Malloy Announces Grants for Six Communities That Will Help Put Blighted Properties Back Into Productive Use

$1 Million in Grants Will Be Used to Support Redevelopment Projects in Ansonia, Bridgeport, Naugatuck, New Milford, Thomaston, and Thompson

(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced that six municipalities and organizations in Connecticut, including Ansonia, Naugatuck, New Milford, Thompson, the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, and the Bridgeport Economic Development Corporation, are being awarded a total of $1 million in state grants that will help the entities in their efforts to remediate and redevelop clusters of blighted properties – also known as “brownfields” – and put them back into productive use.

The funds are being awarded by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) through the recently launched Brownfield Area-Wide Revitalization (BAR) Grant program. This is the second round of grants being awarded under the program. Created in 2015, the program encourages communities to consider areas such as neighborhoods, downtowns, waterfront districts, or other sections with multiple blighted properties and develop strategies to assess, clean up, and reuse the parcels for business, housing, and public amenities that will generate jobs and revenues and revitalize the entire area.

“Blighted properties are an eyesore in neighborhoods and drive down property values,” Governor Malloy said. “By making investments in these scarred, abandoned, and otherwise unusable parcels of land, we can attract many more times that amount back in private investments while also making communities more attractive to business and job growth.”

The grants are part of the Malloy administration’s ongoing and unprecedented efforts to make investments in brownfields that have a positive impact on improving the economic development opportunities in local communities. Since 2011, the state has invested $225.6 million in 170 brownfield projects located in 72 municipalities across the state. For every $1 of state investment in a brownfield project, $11.41 has been or will be invested by non-state partners.

“Connecticut continues to be a national leader in brownfield remediation and redevelopment,” DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith said. “Thanks to the innovative new programs developed under Governor Malloy’s leadership, six communities can take the first steps toward cleaning up and reactivating polluted sites in their municipalities.”

The second round of BAR Grants are being awarded to the following municipalities and organizations:

City of Ansonia: $200,000 grant to develop a plan to restore the economic vitality of the Ansonia Brass Company site and adjacent former industrial properties in the heart of Ansonia’s downtown. This property is adjacent to the commuter rail station and along the Naugatuck River.

Town of Thompson: $170,000 grant to perform planning studies and predevelopment work crucial to the success of pending redevelopment and revitalization of two major mill complexes – River Mill and the Belding-Corticelli Mills. The project area extends over a two-mile-long portion of the North Grosvenor Dale section of Thompson.

To read the full article, please visit: https://portal.ct.gov/Malloy-Archive/Press-Room/Press-Releases/2018/06-2018/Gov-Malloy-Announces-Grants-for-Communities-That-Will-Put-Blighted-Properties-Into-Productive-Use.