December 2018
Choice Words LLC handled the grant writing for eight projects that received $3.3 million in collective funding last week via the New York State Consolidated Funding Application (CFA). The awards will help fund development, infrastructure, and capital improvement projects for companies, municipalities, and nonprofit organizations located in Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Westchester counties.
Some of the projects awarded funding include the Wildberry Lodge Resort Project in New Paltz ($1.25 million), Hutton Brickyards Re-development Project ($1.17 million), Jacob Burns Film Center ($506,000), the Thompson Cider Mill Expansion ($137,000), and the Town of New Windsor Sewer Improvement Study ($100,000). State officials announced the awarding of the grants on Tuesday, Dec. 18. The CFA is the primary conduit for state funding of not-for-profit agencies and economic development initiatives.
“Choice Words is pleased to have contributed to eight winning applications on behalf of companies, municipalities, and nonprofit organizations located in four Hudson Valley counties,” said Choice Words’ President Steve Densmore. “These worthy and visionary projects will bring economic development, jobs, and infrastructure improvements to our region.”
Eight of Choice Words’ clients in four counties were awarded the following amounts:
- Wildberry Lodge ($1,250,000) to help fund Turk Hospitality’s proposed $42M resort in New Paltz, which will include a hotel, restaurants, catering facility, recreational amenities, and a butterfly conservancy (Ulster County);
- Hutton Brickyards Redevelopment Project Phase II ($1.17 million) to expand upon the redevelopment of a significant portion of the City of Kingston’s long underutilized waterfront. This project will bring more amenities and hospitality services to North Street Brick Works’ successful efforts to reimagine this former industrial site as an entertainment and community market venue (Ulster County);
- Jacob Burns Film Center ($506,000) will dramatically improve and expand its services as the famed theater and cultural center located in Pleasantville, NY (Westchester County);
- Thompson Cider Mill Expansion ($137,000) will fund the re-location and expansion of the long-established cider mill into hard cider production in a new location in the City of Peekskill (Westchester County);
- Walkway Over the Hudson Lighting Project ($100,000) will fund the design and specifications of a new lighting system for the iconic linear park spanning the Hudson River between the City of Poughkeepsie and the Town of Lloyd. (Dutchess and Ulster Counties);
- Town of New Windsor Sewer Improvement Project ($100,000) will fund an engineering study identifying and suggesting improvements to infiltration and inflow from portions of the Town’s Sanitary Collection System, an increasing concern for residents as the system ages and as damage from significant weather events increases (Orange County);
- Storm King Art Center ($50,250) will fund the marketing of the popular outdoor sculpture venue as a cultural destination to New York City residents and others (Orange County);
- Family Services of Poughkeepsie ($20,000) will fund the creation of the Family Partnership Center Campus Master Plan to delineate the Family Partnership Center’s (FPC) capital improvement needs, facility-wide, and provide a work plan for moving forward, that will consider roofing, programmatic space, reconfiguration, accessibility, and structural improvements (Dutchess County).