Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces $200 Million in Funding to Revitalize Downtown Areas in Communities Across New York State

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced $200 million in funding for two major downtown revitalization initiatives: NY Forward, a new program aimed at rejuvenating smaller and rural communities, and Round 6 of the state's successful Downtown Revitalization Initiative. An educational brochure on both programs was also released today. Governor Hochul announced the funding in Jamaica, Queens at the ribbon-cutting for Greater Nexus, a brand-new $11 million coworking space funded through Jamaica's previous DRI award and operated by Greater Jamaica Development Corporation in partnership with York College.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning. It is so great to back here in Queens in a building that I'm rather familiar with. I'll tell you that story in a minute, but we are joined here today by some extraordinary leaders. People I've known a long time, become my friends. And first of all, want to recognize our amazing Borough President. Donovan Richards has been a true leader, a man who governs with his intellect, but also his heart and his passion for the people he represent. So, let's give him a round applause. Donovan Richard.

Senator Comrie will be joining us shortly and when he comes, I'll remind him of a story of when we came here for the groundbreaking two and a half years ago and the elevator wasn't working and it was pretty hot day. We all went up what had felt like 20 flights of stairs. I think in actuality is probably maybe four or five, but I won't forget that. So, he'll be joining us shortly.

Hope Knight. What can I say about Hope? She cut her teeth in other places, but really cemented her understanding of economic development and the intersection of communities, the people and the possibilities of doing so much more for them by lifting them up through targeted smart investments. And so, Hope, this is one of your babies and I know you're really proud to be here. We look forward to hearing the proud mother describe her favorite child.

Robert Rodriguez, our Secretary of State, who travels as much as I used to as Lieutenant Governor. You're trying - 372,000 miles is what I did. So, you got a little catching up to do, but I'm sure you'll get there. He's traveled the state, but also representing our administration so impactfully, and he oversees the Downtown Revitalization Initiative which is one of my favorite projects of all. So, I thank you and your team and everything you do there as well.

Justin Rogers, too. This was something you worked on. You had the vision to imagine a former family court space into something that could really be a place of gathering. And this was even before the pandemic. We did not realize that people would really be thinking the whole concept of work in an office, and what that means. Do you really need to go to your traditional space, or can you come to a hybrid space and be with other individuals and not have to go quite as far from your home? And that's exactly what this building is. So, you are the visionary who first saw this happening.

I think Melva Miller may be joining us as well. Oh, Mel, you are here. I'm looking right at you. Oh, there you are. Now that she's a big shot, CEO of ABNY. Okay. Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation. Thank you. And I understand this is one of the very first development corporations like this in the country. Back in 1967, not that any of you were born back then, but the people who shoulders you stand on had a great vision. So Melva, thank you for all the work you do, watching out for the larger community and the work that you did here in Jamaica as well.

So, I love coming here because this is a new beginning. This is really a new beginning, and this is a continuation of what we set forth to do as a young administration, just less than a year ago. But it's something I really believe in is when you have communities that rise up and form a vision that is theirs. It is not dictated by Albany. It is not me sitting in my office saying, "I think Jamaica needs this. I think Queens needs this."

This is created by the community. The ability of the state to finance, this is important, but also the empowerment where people say, "This is what we need on this block. And here's what we want to do with this space." And then to make it become a reality, this is so exciting. And we're doing this all over the State of New York, and this is an important part of what we're doing.

So this particular project, and I'll let the parents of this describe it a more great deal, the Greater Nexus, but just walk through the space. This is uplifting, you know, the color. I love the color of the blue walls out there. Everything is just so inviting. Literally August 1st, we'll be accepting tenants and we're looking forward to welcoming 80 upwards to a hundred people who will now be able to have, what I call, the creative collisions.

You know, people that may be right now working in their basements. Their big escape of the day is going up, and getting a cup of coffee and go back down again. Not a lot of human interaction going on there.

And so, what we want to do is create a space that people can have co-working experiences. Meaning, someone who might be working on one project, an architect who sees and talks to an aspiring engineer, who then talks to an entrepreneur. They have these collisions when they're having the coffee together. And that is what my fear has been. We're going to miss - if we continue people working at home, I understand the luxury of this for many, but also, we are known for our innovation here in the State of New York. And I want to make sure that we create spaces like this. The timing is perfect to welcome individuals who'll be helping build back and reimagine our post-pandemic world as they sit here and come up with great ideas. So, this was a project that was made possible back in 2016. We came out, we were we at the performing arts center. That had to be the hottest day in history.

I remember this? Like we were literally melting, but it didn't dampen the enthusiasm. I know Melinda Katz was there. Melva was there, and I just remember coming out there. 2016, I'm still kind of a rookie Lieutenant Governor. But I saw the possibilities because a lot of times people had thought of the DRIs as being more upstate. You take a community upstate and you invest the $10 million in the smaller communities and that's wildly impactful.

I mean, smaller size, $10 million when I was a local official, my town, if someone had said you have $10 million to reimagine your future, I would've died and gone to heaven. I mean, I thought it doesn't get any better than that, but then we thought, well, the borough is, they're larger scale, but you could just take a neighborhood, take a community, take a defined area like Jamaica and show it can be done here as well.

So, we made those announcements back in 2016 on a very hot day outdoors. And made sure that people knew that we had some other ideas as well. So, we wanted to talk about bringing broadband down here, making the downtown more inviting and also a public space. So, we had a lot of ideas then, but this was one of the best.

This is one of the best. And what this is the Greater Nexus pride. It's 18,000 square feet. They'll be open for local entrepreneurs, professionals. Our investment from the state was $2.3 million overall. It was partially HCR, partially ESD, and the total project cost was $11 million. So, this is what the genius behind us is as well because you put that private sector money out there, but also you leverage. We put our public money, leverage the private sector and all of a sudden, the numbers are transformative.

So, we're really excited about what we're doing here and continuing the projects like this, keep them going. But also, the overall DRI program overseen again by the Secretary of State, we've allocated over $600 million to 59 communities in five rounds.

And I know because I announced most of them, I've been to most of them, I've gone there for the announcement, and then the groundbreakings, and then the ribbon cuttings and then the celebrations.

And truly when you go to these and we saw this on that hot day, many years ago, the community feels like it's just like the Oscars. It's like when you announce that a community has won. The energy is so invigorating to me as a public official. That's why we're going to continue. And that's why we're announcing today that we're now launching our sixth round of DRIs, $100 million. Again, we got that through the budget. Once again, that'll be $10 million to each of our 10 state regions.

So, I'm looking forward to it. I've got a great Lieutenant Governor. I'm going to put him on the road as well. Antonio Delgado. That's the larger program. That's the $10 million for an area, but I also found as I travel the state, there are smaller communities where even the concept of figuring out what to do with $10 million is a little bit overwhelming. So, they couldn't even apply. They said, meet that. We've got to plan for 2 million or 3 million, or this could transform a downtown or take a vacant commercial strip and bring new life to it. And they never applied. So I saw this and I said, "Well, let's change that." And so in my very first budget, I said, "We're going to fix that."

And that's why we had $100 million for our New York Forward to focus on the smaller communities. So, we'll be funding $100 million for the smaller communities as well. So, I want to just continue to celebrate this incredible space. This is a new beginning. I'm very energized to see that you got the job done because sometimes things start out as ideas, they're concepts, but it takes a lot of hard work and pushing and pushing and getting through all the barriers.

And I want to be able to point to this project as we go forward and say, this is what I'm talking about in state government. The power of government to do good directly in communities to lift them up, to create jobs, opportunities. And you think about all the people who'll be starting here August 1st. Someday they may look back and say, I'm now a major company. I hire lots of people, but I got my start sitting right here in the space. And it happened because of the people I'm about to introduce.

And with that, I want to bring up our Borough President who'll then introduce Hope Knight and our Secretary of State. I want to thank all of them for their involvement, but I don't see Senator Comrie yet.

All right, next Assemblymember Clyde Vanel here as well. Do we have any chairs for him? He helped pass this in the Legislature. So I think we should get him a chair, right? I want to thank him for being here as well, but with that, let me bring up our great Borough President, Donovan Richards.