Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding a $440,000 grant to the Town of Brattleboro, Vermont, to make critical water infrastructure improvements needed to support commercial development. The project, to be located in a Tax Cuts and Jobs Act designated Opportunity Zone, will be matched with $320,000 in local funds and is expected to help create nearly 200 jobs and generate $27.5 million in private investment.
“Supporting locally-devised strategies to boost economic opportunity is a major focus of the Trump Administration,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Dr. John Fleming. “EDA’s investment in new and increased infrastructure capacities within the Qualified Opportunity Zone will not only benefit Brattleboro and Windham County directly, but will also help the entire Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts tristate region attract additional businesses and private investment.”
The project will create new and increased infrastructure capacities to support retention and attraction of advanced manufacturing businesses including dairy processing, optical instrument and lens manufacturing, and aerospace product and parts manufacturing. The effort will also support expansion of workforce development opportunities within a Qualified Opportunity Zone. Project elements include improvements to the existing water pump station, wastewater pump station and wastewater force main to accommodate increased water demand and wastewater flows for the Exit 1 Industrial Park and the emergent Delta Business Campus.
The funding announced today goes to a designated Opportunity Zone, created by President Donald J. Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to spur economic development by giving tax incentives to investors in economically-distressed communities nationwide. In June 2019, EDA added Opportunity Zones as an Investment Priority, which increases the number of catalytic Opportunity Zone-related projects that EDA can fund to fuel greater public investment in these areas. To learn more about the Opportunity Zone program, see the Treasury Department resources page here. To learn more about the Department’s work in Opportunity Zones, read our blog post.
About the U.S. Economic Development Administration (www.eda.gov)
The mission of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting competitiveness and preparing the nation’s regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy. An agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, EDA makes investments in economically distressed communities in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American innovation, and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.