Pete HahnloserThe U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is announcing $49.46 million in grants to public entities at the local, regional and state levels through the Innovative Finance and Asset Concession Grant Program (IFACGP), established under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). More than 70% of the projects receiving funding involve transit-oriented development (TOD) and downtown revitalization efforts, aligning with the administration’s goals of increasing housing availability and reducing costs.
The grant program consists of $100 million over five years to assess current assets to maximize their value and explore financing and project-delivery options, such as the Build America Bureau’s low-cost loan program under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA). Grants can go up to $2 million, with no matching funds required for the first million dollars.
RELATED: Transit-oriented development opportunities are abundant throughout the U.S.
“This is a transformative program that is focused on unlocking value from underutilized assets,” Build America Bureau Executive Director Morteza Farajian said. “The goal of this innovative program is to facilitate partnerships between private and public entities to deliver community benefits in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. The selected recipients represent a wide range of projects that are good candidates for public-private partnerships.”
The Build America Bureau oversees the financing program, offering technical assistance and expert services grants. An interactive map shows where funds are being disbursed.
Grant recipients include:
- Capital Metro in Austin, Texas, will use $1 million to explore an Equitable TOD pilot location and assess locations to develop a pipeline of future TOD opportunities.
- Merced County, Calif., is studying how to update and expand the Castle Commerce Center Inland Port, a 1,912-acre multimodal freight hub less than 100 miles from the ports of Oakland and Stockton. The county will use $450,000 to work with advisors to identify financing and investment opportunities.
- New Rochelle, N.Y., plans to use $1 million to consider city-owned assets for potential TOD projects aimed at economic revitalization and benefiting underserved communities.
- The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority is redesigning its Kennedy Plaza outdoor bus hub into a modern mixed-use development with a new transit center, housing, and commercial spaces. With $2 million from the IFACGP and an additional $1 million from the authority, the $3 million study will focus on attracting private developers for the project.
Recipients of the technical assistance grants will use the funds to build their organizations and develop a range of assets by completing preconstruction tasks including asset reviews, market research, evaluating delivery options and financial planning. Those receiving expert services grants will use the money to hire advisors to examine a specific asset and explore creative financing and delivery methods, such as public-private partnerships.
The new IFACGP program is part of a range of technical assistance opportunities at the DOT, joining the Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program, the Regional Infrastructure Accelerators Program and the Thriving Communities Program. These initiatives aim to equip communities with the resources needed to secure federal funding and financing for major infrastructure projects
Steven Polunsky, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
