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Gov. Charlie Baker announces more than $143 million in grant awards to support 337 local economic development projects in 169 communities during an event at the Berkshire Innovation Center in Pittsfield on Oct. 26. (Photo courtesy Joshua Qualls/Governor’s Press Office)
The Baker-Polito administration today announced more than $143 million in grant awards for economic development projects made through the Community One Stop for Growth portal.
The grants, which will support 337 local projects in 169 communities statewide, were announced at an event in Pittsfield by Gov. Charlie Baker, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, Undersecretary of Community Development Ashley Stolba, and MassDevelopment President and CEO Dan Rivera, who were joined by local officials.
Community One Stop provides a streamlined, collaborative review process for 12 state grant programs that fund economic development projects related to community capacity building, planning and zoning, site preparation, building construction and infrastructure. MassWorks, the largest program in the One Stop portfolio, is awarding $100 million in grants this year.
For this round of One Stop, the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development received 523 applications from 207 communities representing every region of the Commonwealth, according to state officials. Of the 337 applications awarded, 31% are located in a rural or small town; 32% are located in a Gateway City; and 43% are located in a Housing Choice Community.
State officials said this year’s grants are expected to directly support the creation of 6,950 new housing units across the Commonwealth, including 5,068 new market-rate units and 1,882 new affordable units.
Gov. Baker said the administration has made “significant investments in helping our cities, towns and local partners achieve their economic development goals through a range of grant programs and legislation aimed at advancing the diverse needs of municipalities across the state.”
Stolba said the One Stop portal and collaborative review process ensures that her agency takes “a wide-angle lens in directing funding to communities of all sizes and across all regions. This round we were proud to fund about 60-70% of all applications that were submitted in a region, and every region received more awards and more funding than last year.”
The fiscal 2023 One Stop grants include:
• MassWorks Infrastructure Program: $100 million awarded to 63 projects
• Underutilized Properties Program: $21.7 million awarded to 49 projects
• Rural and Small Town Development Fund: $4.96 million awarded to 25 projects
• Housing Choice Community Grants: $3.9 million awarded to 36 projects
• Site Readiness Program: $2.86 million awarded to 12 projects
• Urban Agenda: $2.65 million awarded to 31 projects
• Brownfields Redevelopment Fund: $2.6 million awarded to 13 projects
• Community Planning Grants: $2.39 million awarded to 40 projects
• Collaborative Workspace Program: $1.2 million awarded to 39 projects
• Commonwealth Places: $385,663 awarded to 12 projects
• Massachusetts Downtown Initiative: $350,000 awarded to 14 projects
• Real Estate Services Technical Assistance: $250,000 awarded to seven projects
MassWorks, one of the state’s largest competitive grant programs, offers flexible capital funding to support and accelerate housing production and job growth. Among this year’s MassWorks projects, 39 are reactivating underutilized sites, 31 are supporting transit-oriented developments, and 30 have a mixed-use component. Seventeen communities are receiving their first-ever MassWorks award.
The Baker-Polito administration has awarded a total of 391 MassWorks grants to 197 communities, investing more than $709 million in public infrastructure projects throughout the state. The grants have directly supported the creation of 26,000 new housing units and thousands of construction and new permanent jobs, while also leveraging approximately $17 billion in private investment.
The grant announcement was made at the Berkshire Innovation Center in Pittsfield. The city is receiving more than $3.6 million in awards through the One Stop process, including a $3 million MassWorks award to the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority to convert 16.5 blighted acres of a former General Electric transformer property into greenspace, roadways, utility corridors, and stormwater management.