Technical Assistance Success Stories | EPA #560F23296
March 2023
Planning for Sustainable Brownfield Redevelopment
FUNDING & FINANCING STRATEGY FOR SOUNDVIEW ECONOMIC HUB
SOUTH BRONX, NY (EPA REGION 2)
SITE STATISTICS
• Community: Bronx, New York
• Local project lead: Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice
• Former use: Highway underpass
• Future use: Community Space
• Brownfields technical assistance: Funding/financing analysis and development of
PROJECT BACKGROUND
The area surrounding the Bruckner Expressway Underpass in South Bronx, New York,
includes a high concentration of low-income residents who are cost burdened by housing
and negatively impacted by surrounding land uses. In 2019, the Youth Ministries for
Peace and Justice (YMPJ) completed a Brownfields Area-wide Plan (AWP) and
redevelopment strategy for brownfield sites that are clustered along the Bronx
River/Sheridan Expressway, In 2022, the U.S. EPA's Office of Brownfields and Land
Revitalization (OBLR) provided technical assistance (TA) to develop a conceptual reuse
plan for a 20,000 square foot area underneath the Bruckner Expressway. The conceptual
plan called for the site to be transformed into a community hub site ("Soundview Economic
Hub") that offers opportunities for safe community use, placemaking, and local economic
development activities,
PROJECT CHALLENGE
YMPJ needed funding and financing TA to better understand how the community could activate the Soundview Economic Hub site in a
financially sustainable way that provides ongoing benefits to the community. YMPJ was interested in identifying examples of similar
projects that had been implemented in other communities where a highway underpass was improved for public use, including active
and passive public recreation, vendor and farmers markets, art installations, and permanent commercial and retail uses, TA was also
needed to assess how to activate the Soundview Economic Hub site with YMPJ's desired uses, such as a community soil bank and
permanent facilities supporting small businesses, These uses would likely require YMPJ to secure a site access agreement with the
City of New York, secure permits, and work with other stakeholders to develop and implement economic development activities.
HOW EPA HELPED
In 2022-2023, OBLR provided TA to conduct a funding and financial analysis for the Soundview Economic Hub project. The TA
included the following support:
• Preparation of an Action Plan: identifies the strategies and steps that can be implemented with existing capacity and potential
funding sources to achieve site reuse goals.
• Conducting a Cost Analysis: Estimates the cost to implement the action plan activities over a 5-year timeframe.
• Development of a Funding Strategy: Identifies potential sources of funding that may be available to support implementation of
the action plan, including grants to support project management and other short-term startup costs, grants and fees from economic
development activities that may be available to support long-term operations and site build out, and support from the City of New
York Office of Environmental Remediation which provides materials and assistance for community soil bank programs.
COMMUNITY'S NEXT STEPS
• Finalize a site access agreement with the City of New York.
• Develop grant writing capacity and begin to apply for grants to fund start-up activities.
• Create a soil bank logistics and marketing plan and pursue permitting/approvals to establish a community soil bank at the site.
Action Plan
Figure 1: Bruckner Expressway Underpass,
Bronx, NY
Questions? Please contact EPA Region 2: Schenine Mitchell
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