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Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The Executive Office of Economic Development and MassDevelopment joined state and local officials in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on July 30 to announce $6.5 million in awards from the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund to support the environmental assessment and cleanup of 20 contaminated sites across Massachusetts for redevelopment.
Once complete, the projects are expected to redevelop a total of 21 acres, unlock more than 950,000 square feet of new development, and create or preserve more than 700 housing units.
“The Brownfields Redevelopment Fund helps local partners meet their economic development goals by bringing blighted or vacant sites back into productive use for housing and commercial development,” said Interim Economic Development Secretary Ashley Stolba, who serves as chair of MassDevelopment’s Board of Directors. “This is an important state resource for cleaning up contaminated properties to benefit our residents and communities now and into the future.”
MassDevelopment, the state’s development finance agency and land bank, oversees the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, which was created in 1998 to transform contaminated and underused industrial or commercial properties by funding or financing their environmental assessment and remediation toward redevelopment.
MassDevelopment President and CEO Navjeet Bal said the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund works closely with municipalities, community development corporations, and other nonprofit organizations “as they work to revitalize challenging properties in their communities.”
The awarded projects are located in Athol, Boston (multiple), Gloucester, Hingham, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford, Salem, Winchendon, and Worcester. (Click here for details.)
The awards were provided as rolling round grants, which are available year-round on a case-by-case basis to eligible community development corporations, nonprofits, and municipalities seeking environmental assessment or remediation of sites with active projects. The MassDevelopment website features a Notice of Funding Availability with details on how to apply for this category of assistance.
Stolba made the announcement at the Talbot Bernard Senior Homes, a previous recipient of a Brownfields Redevelopment Fund grant. The organization that manages the property, the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, is receiving $850,000 in awards from this round of the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund to support the development of 42 units of affordable housing across two sites in Dorchester.