Economic Development Administration: Economic Development Assistance Programs

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) is soliciting applications from rural and urban areas to provide investments that support projects under EDA’s Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance programs. Grants and cooperative agreements made under these programs are designed to leverage existing regional assets and support the implementation of economic development strategies that advance new ideas and creative approaches to advance economic prosperity in distressed communities. EDA provides strategic investments on a competitive merit-basis to support economic development, foster job creation, and attract private investment in economically distressed areas of the United States.

The Public Works program provides catalytic investments to help distressed communities build, design, or engineer critical infrastructure and facilities that will help implement regional development strategies and advance bottom-up economic development goals to promote regional prosperity. The Public Works program provides resources to meet construction and/or the design of infrastructure needs of communities to enable them to become more economically competitive. Prior examples of investments EDA supported through the Public Works program include projects supporting water and sewer system improvements, industrial parks, high-tech shipping and logistics facilities, workforce training facilities, business incubators and accelerators, brownfield development, technology-based facilities, wet labs, multi-tenant manufacturing facilities, science and research parks, and telecommunications infrastructure and development facilities. Investments made through the Public Works program must be aligned with a current regional economic development strategy and clearly lead to the creation or retention of long-term jobs.

The Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) program provides investments that support a wide range of construction and non-construction activities (including infrastructure, design and engineering, technical assistance, economic recovery strategies, and capitalization or re-capitalization of Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) projects) in regions experiencing severe economic dislocations that may occur suddenly or over time. EDA utilizes EAA investments to provide resources that help communities experiencing or anticipating economic dislocations to plan and implement specific solutions to leverage their existing regional economic advantages to support economic development and job creation. Like Public Works investments, EAA investments are designed to help communities catalyze public-private partnerships to foster collaboration, attract investment, create jobs, and foster economic resiliency and prosperity.

Amount: Specific FY 2014 funding amounts for each program will be announced separately by EDA upon availability. In FY 2013, EDA allocated $111,640,000 for the Public Works program and investments ranged from $200,000 to $3,000,000; also in FY 2013 EDA allocated $50,060,000 to the EAA program and investments range from $100,000 to $1,250,000.

Eligibility: (i) District Organization of a designated Economic Development District; (ii) Indian Tribe or a consortium of Indian Tribes; (iii) State, county, city, or other political subdivision of a State, including a special purpose unit of a State or local government engaged in economic or infrastructure development activities, or a consortium of political subdivisions; (iv) institution of higher education or a consortium of institutions of higher education; or (v) public or private non-profit organization or association acting in cooperation with officials of a political subdivision of a State.

Notes: Applications are reviewed quarterly. Other upcoming deadlines include June 13 and October 17, 2014.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact their regional representative prior to preparing an application. In New Mexico, this is: Matthew Giannini, mgiannini@eda.gov, or 512-381-8171.

Link: http://www.eda.gov/ffo.htm

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