One year after Hurricane Sandy devastated coastal communities in the Northeast, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced an allocation of a combined $5.1 billion through a second round of recovery funds to five states and New York City. Provided through HUD’s Communty Development Block Grant (“CDBG”) Program, these CDBG recovery funds will assist impacted communities to meet remaining housing, economic development and infrastructure needs. In this second Sandy allocation, grantees will be required to identify unmet needs for housing, economic development and infrastructure and may use this allocation to address those unmet needs. Grantees will be required to incorporate a risk assessment in their planning efforts to ensure long term resilience. The Second HUD CDBG Sandy Allocation has been made to the following: New York City – $1,447,000,000; New Jersey – $1,463,000,000; New York State – $2,097,000; Connecticut – $66,000,000; Maryland – $20,000,000; and Rhode Island – $16,000,000.
Duane Morris Helps Sandy Victims
Nicole Friant, who serves as pro bono counsel for Duane Morris, announced a commitment by the firm to help victims of Super Storm Sandy. Duane Morris has formed a Sandy Relief legal clinic with Volunteer Lawyers for Justice in Atlantic City. The clinic is staffed by Duane Morris lawyers who volunteer to provide legal assistance to victims of Super Storm Sandy who are still working to overcome the aftermath of Sandy and rebuild their lives. The clinic is located at St. Andrew By the Sea Lutheran Church, 936 Baltic Avenue, Atlantic City, NJ 08401.
Deadline Extended for NYC Build it Back
Richard Dyer a partner in the New York City of Duane Morris reports that the deadline to register for the NYC Build it Back extended to Oct 31st. This program is intended to help Sandy victims repair, rebuild, get reimbursed for expenses incurred or sell their homes. The program is funded from the $645 million from Federal disaster recovery funds approved by Congress. To date there have been over 20,000 registrations to participate in the program. See the City’s press release at http://www.nyc.gov/html/recovery/downloads/pdf/nyc-build-it-back-deadline-extension.pdf.
New York City Announces Four Sandy Waterfront Design Semi-Finalists
Richard Dyer a partner in the New York City Office of Duane Morris reports that on July 18th, four semi-finalist teams were announced by the City of New York including Ennead Architects (formerly Polshek Partners) of New York, Lateral Office of Toronto, Seeding Office of London, and White Arkitekler of London to City sponsored competition to determine how to best design and build on the City’s waterfront areas exposed to future storms.
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Duane Morris NYC Office to Host Super Storm Sandy Conference
The New York City Office of Duane Morris will host a Super Storm Sandy Conference and Reception on September 25th. The focus of the Conference is “From Disaster to Recovery: Financing Tools for Development after Super Storm Sandy”. The panelists are Jonathan Gouveia, Senior Vice-President of the Strategic Investment Group of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Margaret Anadu, Vice President of the Urban Investment Group of Goldman Sachs, George L. Olsen, Managing Principal of the New York City EB-5 Regional Center, and Andrew Rachlin, Vice President and Market Leader of The Reinvestment Fund. The speakers on the panel will discuss a wide range of financing tools available for development in the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy which include Sandy HUD CDBG grants, Federal New Markets Tax Credits, equity, debt, and EB-5 financing. The Conference will be from 5 pm to 6 pm followed by a cocktail reception from 6:00 pm to 7:30. For further information and to register contact Art Momjian at ajmomjian@duanemorris.com
NYC EDC issues RFEI for Staten Island Site
Richard Dyer of the New York City office of Duane Morris reports that the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Port Authority) have issued a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) for re-development at the Staten Island Industrial Park known as the Teleport. The RFEI will seek ideas from developers to expand or transform the site, or to utilize the site more efficiently. Currently, approximately half of the Teleport is used as a data center and office park, while the remaining half, another 40 acres, is available for development.
A public notice regarding the opportunity was posted at the EDC’s website here. The notice summarized some background and elements of the project as follows:
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