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Developers Sought
For ‘High-Quality,
Upper-Story Units’
City Hall Wants Applications
For $400,000 More In Funding
Monday, the City of Oneonta will begin accepting applications for a second round down Downtown Revitalization Initiative grants, this one to create “high-quality upper-story housing units” in the downtown.
Applications for the money from the city’s Downtown Improvement Fund will be due by 4 p.m. Friday, July 12.
$400,000 in grants is available. However, if any winners of $2 million in the first round, announced in March, do not follow through, that money will be folded into the second round.
The goal, said Mayor Gary Herzig, is to fill an “unmet need for improved housing for young professionals and early retirees” in the “a wealth of downtown buildings with vacant or underutilized upper stories.”
City Hall, he said, will provide “robust funding … to incentivize property owners to begin meeting this substantiated need.”
A first $2 million round, announced in March, funded 60 projects, mostly for façade and storefront updates, and signs, but also several new market-rate apartments on Main and Dietz streets.
Building on that, said Project Selection chair Kim Muller, the second round aims to “catalyze the creation of high-quality housing that will attract more residents to our increasingly vibrant downtown.”
Information and applications will be on the city’s website, or from Elizabeth Horvath, Delaware Engineering, at (607) 432-8073 or ehorvath@delawareengineering.com.