Case Study 10

Uprose's Area Plan Benefits From a Local Development Corporation's Relationships

Background:

The United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park (UPROSE) is an environmental justice group involved in community organizing and youth programming. UPROSE administers a state-funded planning effort in Sunset Park, Brooklyn which seeks to create public access to the waterfront and growth of the green manufacturing sector. Initially, UPROSE invited the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation (SBIDC), a neighborhood-based economic development organization, to join UPROSE’s Steering Committee and help guide its planning efforts. UPROSE sought to use SBIDC’s relationships with area businesses to broaden community support for its planning efforts.

Strategy:

When UPROSE issued a Request For Proposals for design and advanced planning services, SBIDC decided to withdraw from the Steering Committee and join a group of vendors that planned to respond to the procurement.

That team won the procurement, and SBIDC was tasked with assessing the interest of area property owners in pursuing redevelopment compatible with UPROSE’s economic development goals for the area. Drawing on its decades of experience with local business, SBIDC easily engaged property owners about UPROSE’s planning effort and its redevelopment goals for the area. SBIDC contacted approximately 20 property owners and spoke to them about strategies to redevelop vacant, contaminated sites.

Conclusion:

Although no concrete redevelopment plans emerged, SBIDC’s outreach generated strong local support for the Sunset Park plan.

Related Development Strategy