by Austin Wheelock | ooc@oswegocounty.org
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Feb. 5 that the towns of Hastings and Cicero together will receive $4.5 million to benefit the hamlet of Brewerton, as one of the Central New York region winners of the second round of New York Forward.
This is the fourth successful application from Oswego County for the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and New York Forward programs.
The Downtown Revitalization Initiative — or DRI — was originally created in 2016 to assist small cities across New York state with redeveloping their downtowns and building on local assets like waterfront, arts, culture and existing industries by strategically investing state funding in multiple projects developed in collaboration with the private sector. The New York Forward program (NYF) was created two years ago to address a similar need in smaller, more rural communities across the state.
Over this time, Oswego County communities have developed a strong track record of developing winning proposals and implementation processes through a series of public and private projects that have leveraged up to 10 times the private investment for every dollar of state funding.
Before the Brewerton announcement, previous Oswego County winners were the city of Oswego (DRI in 2016), the city of Fulton (DRI in 2019) and the village of Phoenix (NYF in 2023).
DRI and NYF winners from Oswego County
• In 2016, the city of Oswego was awarded $10 million during the first round of DRI. Oswego’s vision was to build off recent momentum and target funding to buildings and sites that had great potential to spur further development. The proposal was highlighted by projects like the Litatro Building, Riverwalk, Cahill Landing, Eastlake Commons among others that would transform the downtown and waterfront through the addition of new mixed-use developments, which would bring additional jobs, visitors and residents to the city of Oswego. Oswego also had several public space improvement projects like the Water Street Pocket Park and the 104 Corridor Streetscapes improvements that supported and complemented the new private investments as well as other downtown and waterfront assets.
Fast forward to July 2023 and Oswego was the first community in New York state to successfully complete all of its DRI projects with the completion of Splash Indoor Water Park. The $10 million in DRI funding was able to leverage almost $100 million in private investment in the city of Oswego and has led to dozens of other private sector investments without state support.
• The city of Fulton was named a Round 4 $10 million DRI winner in August 2019. Fulton’s proposal was to leverage the city’s historic downtown waterfront and the economic drivers found in Fulton’s health, service and manufacturing industries and its innovative entrepreneurs to enhance the city’s natural and cultural attractions.
Shortly after winning, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the implementation progress considerably, delaying the final list of state-supported projects until May 2021 and led to unanticipated cost increases and supply chain issues that have slowed some of the larger projects.
Nonetheless, many of the 16 total projects like Huhtamaki’s streetscape improvements and equipment modernization, Oswego Health campus expansion, Good Guys Barber Shop expansion, new fast casual restaurant development, Canal Landing Marina and others have been completed or are underway.
In early 2024, new city of Fulton Mayor Jim Rice reconstituted the Fulton DRI committee to assist in getting the remaining projects completed.
• In 2023, the village of Phoenix developed a winning proposal by focusing on the community’s rich 19th century history and character centered around Lock 1 of the Oswego Canal on the Oswego River.
Phoenix’s Canal Waterfront District and an emerging commercial district near the elementary school on Volney Street were the focus of New York Forward funds. After a seven-month public process that ended in November, the local planning commission submitted 15 projects to the NYS Department of State for a total of $6.5 million in grant requests, of which $4.5 million will be awarded.
Projects submitted were from both the private and public sector ranging from mixed-use downtown redevelopment and waterfront development to expanding much needed services like healthcare, childcare, fire protection and sewer infrastructure.
Due to the unique public waterfront assets in Phoenix, the redevelopment of North Island into a tourism destination with an entertainment pavilion, boat docks, dog park and recreation trails was a key submission in the final list of projects. Awards should be announced in late February or early March 2024.
Brewerton Gets $4.5 Million
In 2024, the hamlet of Brewerton — which encompasses the waterfront communities of the towns of Hastings and Cicero and straddles both sides of the Oneida River — embraced the opportunity to bring the two towns together to collaborate on a joint, mutually supported application.
Given both communities’ proximity to the Micron semi-conductor site, New York Forward investments are being viewed as the first step toward intentional, strategic and collaborative planning and development to address the opportunities and challenges presented by Micron by welcoming new residents, visitors and businesses in the years to come.
Brewerton will now begin the process of developing strategic investment plans to revitalize its downtown and waterfront. A local planning committee made up of municipal representatives, community leaders and other stakeholders will lead these efforts, supported by a team of private sector experts and state planners to help Brewerton determine how to best spend $4.5 million.
The Downtown Revitalization Initiative and New York Forward programs have been extremely successful statewide and have provided small cities and communities with much needed resources to reinvent themselves and attract new investment.
Over the past seven years the program has also generated numerous case studies from winning proposals as well as technical assistance resources for additional communities that are interested in participating.
Operation Oswego County, Inc. looks forward to continue working together with the municipalities across Oswego County to put together winning proposals and assisting them to implement projects.
Austin M. Wheelock, certified economic developer (CEcD), is the executive director of Operation Oswego County, Inc. For more information, call 315-343-1545 or visit www.oswegocounty.org.
