Housing and Neighborhood Development Services, Inc.

Codey hand-delivers revitalization grant to a familiar locale

Acting Gov. Richard Codey returned to his childhood stomping grounds yesterday to present the Valley section of Orange with a state grant designed to spark a revitalization of the working-class neighborhood.

Awarded to the East Orange-based nonprofit HANDS Inc., the $250,000 grant is the first money disbursed through the state's Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit Program, which offers tax breaks to private businesses that invest in distressed neighborhoods.

For Codey, who grew up in the Valley and still lives nearby in West Orange, making Orange the first grant recipient held a special significance.

"While the kid can leave Orange, you can never take Orange out of the kid," Codey said during a news conference at the Valley Settlement House. "What we're doing here today is revitalizing without question the Valley area. ... This is only the start."

Funding for this particular project is being provided by PNC Bank, which has committed a total of $1.5 million to the neighborhood revitalization program over the next three years. Through the program, 50 percent of the bank's donations will be reimbursed in the form of tax credits.

"While of course we want to get the tax credit, we feel it's just good business to invest in the communities where we have our markets," said PNC Bank senior vice president William Best.

The area known as the Valley stretches over 20 blocks straddling the border of Orange and West Orange. In the Valley, a long-standing working-class community, HANDS Executive Director Patrick Morrissy said his organization and others have been working since 2001 to redevelop several large, vacant industrial properties into stores, apartments and artists' studios, with an eye on bringing in new blood.

The redevelopment of the Brass Co. building on Freeman Street should be completed by the spring, Morrissy said, with four storefronts for artists on the ground floor and four apartments above.

The Harvard Printing Co. project, on the other hand, is just getting off the ground, but Morrissy said he is hopeful the grant money will spur additional private investment in it and other Valley projects.

"Others in the private sector want to get involved, but that can't get started without the early investment into the toughest sites and getting them started," Morrissy said. "It's thrilling to have the momentum that's now been created."

Orange Mayor Mims Hackett said developers are already "biting at the crust" and showing interest in being part of other redevelopment projects.

"This area is just the beginning of a renaissance of the Valley section," Hackett said.

The neighborhood revitalization grants are distributed through the state Department of Community Affairs. Commissioner Susan Bass Levin said nonprofits must first submit a neighborhood redevelopment plan to DCA and then apply for funding for specific projects.

Levin said nonprofits may submit applications for projects in 66 eligible municipalities. Two projects are currently pending, she said.

Copyright © 2007 Housing and Neighborhood Development Services, Inc.