$2M Grant for Brewster Urban Renewal Project

BREWSTER, NY — The village of Brewster and Putnam County will receive $2 million in state economic development grants to begin the planned downtown revitalization work.

The money is part of a new round of funding awarded through New York's Regional Economic Development Council initiative, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday.

The REDC said:

The County of Putnam, jointly with the Village of Brewster, will initiate Phase I of a multi-phased plan for the revitalization of the Village of Brewster. The overall revitalization plan includes multiple phases of reconstruction of the Village's Main Street corridor, and an abandoned elementary school property called the Garden Street School. For Phase I, a Transit Oriented Development and a Museum is proposed.

County officials described it as:

Transit-oriented development (TOD) proposed to replace the existing buildings between Main Street, Railroad Avenue and Marvin Avenue, and the Southeast Museum to the east. Construction entails a shared subsurface parking structure for 540 cars, with two mixed-use buildings above and built around a central open space plaza. The buildings will provide 290 apartments and 32,000 sq. ft. of retail and commercial space.
Benefits: Revitalizes a distressed community into a vibrant, thriving place to live, work and play; job creation and higher quality of life for village residents, improve tourism and improve regional economic opportunities.

“Through the Regional Economic Development Councils, we have replaced the ‘one-size fits all’ approach to economic growth with a ‘ground-up’ strategy that focuses on cooperation and investing in regional assets to generate opportunity,” Cuomo said in his announcement. “By bringing together ideas from local government and community leaders with state resources, we are giving these councils the tools to create jobs and drive economic activity in their communities for generations to come. I congratulate the Regional Councils on their awards, and look forward to continuing to work together to build a stronger New York for all.”

READ MORE:

• Brewster Approves Urban Renewal Plan
  
• Brewster's Urban Renewal Plan: Highlights, Hearing

Image via village of Brewster