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LMDC To Give Downtown Groups $45 Million Downtown recreation, health, education and civic organizations may soon get a financial boost. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) announced last month that they are ready to give away up to $45 million to non-profit organizations that serve the area below Houston Street. The LMDC will consider existing programs and projects as well as new ones. The deadline for applications is Nov. 10. (Guidelines and application materials for the competitive funding process are available on the LMDC’s website at www.renewnyc.com under Funding Initiatives.) The long-awaited community enhancement grants will be some of the last allocations out of the more than $2 billion in federal money for Lower Manhattan revitalization in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. In addition to the $45 million, another $8 million may be available for additional cultural and community grants. When the LMDC’s business and residential grant programs are completed, there could be up to another $9.5 million for Downtown projects, according to Michael Haberman, LMDC vice president for community relations. Manhattan Youth, which will open a new community center in Tribeca next year, plans to ask for $1.8 million to cover the first two years’ operating costs. A host of other local organizations say they will be applying for the grants, from small neighborhood beautification groups such as Friends of Greenwich Street and Friends of Duane Park to major institutions such as New York Downtown Hospital. Mercy Corps, an international relief organization that will be opening its World Hunger Education Center in Battery Park City in 2008, has said that it, too, will apply. The community enhancement grant applications will be reviewed by an advisory panel, which will make recommendations to the LMDC board of directors for its final decision. No deadline for those decisions has been determined. Also not yet decided is what will happen if the LMDC does not receive requests, or the board does not approve applications, for the full amount of money. The application guidelines say that a second round of funding may be scheduled. Last month, CB1 passed a resolution requesting representation on the advisory panel. The size of that panel and who will serve on it had yet to be decided late last month, Haberman said. The LMDC is accepting questions regarding the grants and will post answers on its web site.
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