City planner Jason Kulaszewski recently updated the city’s Planning Commission on where the Department of Development currently stands on this ongoing project. The DRI application was submitted on time, with multiple projects submitted for it through the online portal. Kulaszewski showed the Planning Commission an updated map of where they are aiming in the city with the DRI, based on the places that were submitted through the portal and some feedback from the state.

“We had to define a completely kind of unique zone from our previous application for this application,” Kulaszewski said. “We did want to tie some of this application into the 2016 DRI to show we were kind of building off of the success of the previous version and building in from that.”

The theme for this current application was “Core to Shore” Kulaszewski said, explaining to the commission that this means tying in the applications from the core downtown area to the shores of the Chadakoin River. There are 24 applications on the city’s DRI list, but Kulaszewski said they will not all get funded as the maximum award amount is $10 million.

“So if we are awarded the DRI we will then get into working with a group … to dig deeper into the details of these and basically prioritize which projects we want to do,” Kulaszewski said.

Stabilization of the Arcade building is one of 24 potential DRI projects in the city. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

Kulaszewski then touched on some of the project applications they received, including St Susan Center for its community kitchen and the Fenton History Center for some renovations. Ramsay Agriculture and the expansion of the Riverwalk and the Arcade building stabilization were also submitted, along with several others.

Project applications also include things such as streetscaping and improving lighting downtown. Kulaszewski referred to getting the information together for the application as “a scramble with all hands on deck,” adding that the entire application had to be 20 pages, and that Economic Development Coordinator, Aili Makuch, did a lot of the writing work and the department’s partners gave them the information to put into the application.

Another project, the redevelopment of Furniture Mart, Kulaszewski said was included in the previous 2016 application but did not receive funding at that time, and this time he said the state recommended they include it again.

“Furniture Mart is one of those historic buildings, and it’s right on the corridor that connects downtown to the Chadakoin right there near Washington Street,” Kulaszewski said.

Kulaszewski added that they will not know if they are awarded anything through the DRI application until the spring, but that every community that submits an application gets an interview with the state. The city is still waiting to hear back about when that interview will be.

The continuing work of the new Ramsay Agriculture business is also a part of the DRI application.

Additionally, Kulaszewski said they did not allocate more than $2 million to any singular project included in the application, and with the $10 million possibility, five projects would be at the low end of what they would be able to do. Multiple factors will be taken into consideration if the city’s application makes it to the next round to prioritize where the money will go, something that Kulaszewski said will be up to a committee of 12 to 16 people, though he added not every project needed the full $2 million allocation. Kulaszewski said they have already been asking for participants for this committee.

The Department of Development will be represented on the committee but will not be voting members as they are part of the city, and other members that they could have asked Kulaszewski said they could not because they submitted an application so it would be a conflict of interest. It was noted by members of the commission that it would be unprecedented but “amazing” if Jamestown was awarded funding through this application again.

“Jamestown was the first city to be awarded the first time around; we’re the first place to have completed our projects, so Empire State Development came to town and had their meeting at the Comedy Center and we were encouraged by them to apply,” Kulaszewski said. “So that was really what was the main drive for us trying to pull this application together. Plus, for me personally, as the new planner, if we got awarded this $10 million this is like the next five to ten years of my work, so it would really be able to set a good path forward especially coming on the tail-end of the comprehensive planning process and some zoning updates that we’ll be moving into after that. … It would be really great to get the funding for sure.”

St Susan Center’s move to the former Jamestown Business College is also included on the list.