A West Virginia University effort that helps West Virginia communities address abandoned, vacant, and dilapidated buildings is encouraging communities to apply for technical assistance awards available to boost their efforts.

The Northern West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center at WVU has a record of success in helping communities convert problem properties – including residential, commercial and industrial sites – into usable parcels for redevelopment. The center’s Brownfields, Abandoned, Dilapidated buildings program is offering technical assistance awards worth $10,000 each to towns and communities dealing with challenges caused by abandoned, vacant and dilapidated properties.

“BAD buildings, including brownfields, can be found in nearly every community in West Virginia and are a significant drag on a community’s ability to grow its local economy and strengthen its neighborhoods,” said Patrick Kirby, director of the Center. “These are properties that can have a variety of challenges to redevelopment and need to be addressed in a systematic fashion, from the ground up, with support from local citizens and stakeholders as well as elected officials.”

The BAD buildings program helps communities identify and prioritize problem properties as well as create redevelopment plans for properties that have high community and economic development potential. Activities eligible for funding include community surveying, inventory analysis, capacity building and redevelopment planning.

Grantees can use the program’s resources to better position themselves to compete for additional technical and programmatic assistance and to help bring additional resources and expertise to their local projects.

Eligible applicants interested in applying for the 2015 BAD Buildings Program should do so by Feb.13, and are encouraged to participate in the web-based conference call training sessions set for Jan. 30. by sending an RSVP to Luke.Elser@mail.wvu.edu or by calling 304-293-6990. Application and additional information can be found online at www.wvbrownfields.org.

-WVU-

le/01/27/15

CONTACT: Patrick Kirby, West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center
304.293.6984, Patrick.Kirby@mail.wvu.edu
or Luke Elser, Northern West Virginia Brownfields Assistance Center
304.293.6990, Luke.Elser@mail.wvu.edu

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