Newburgh seeks state grant to advance Hillside brownfield plan

Newburgh is seeking a $400,000 state grant to push its Hillside Brownfield Opportunity Area from planning into the next phase of redevelopment. Development Director Allie Church said the money would pay for predevelopment and master-planning work tied to rezoning, and would help the city move closer to the finish line on a corridor that has been studied before but not yet fully positioned for change.

The application is part of New York State’s Brownfield Opportunity Area Program, which provides grants and technical assistance for area-wide, community-based plans to redevelop brownfields and other vacant or abandoned sites. The current application deadline is July 31 at 4 p.m., and the city would still need to provide a 10 percent local match if the grant is awarded. Church said the state money would cover the work needed to advance the project and keep the city from drawing down the local line item budgeted for the effort.

The Hillside area is not a small site tucked away at the edge of town. Regional Councils NY describes the BOA as an approximately 81-acre area overlooking the Hudson River at the intersection of the Waterfront Gateway, Downtown Corridor and Broadway Corridor. City officials want the area restored as a productive, mixed-use, commercial neighborhood that can bridge those parts of Newburgh’s core instead of remaining a patchwork of underused land.

That geography is why the grant carries more weight than a routine planning request. Brownfield Opportunity Area work is designed to study contaminated or underutilized land, map possible reuse and create a roadmap that can support housing, mixed-use development or neighborhood revitalization later. For nearby property owners and small businesses, that can mean a stronger case for private investment and clearer zoning expectations. It can also mean more pressure as the city defines what kinds of projects fit the future of the corridor.

The city has already put substantial work into the effort. Its planning pages list the Final City of Newburgh Hillside BOA 2025 Nomination Study and appendices as current documents, and the nomination study won the 2026 Heissenbuttel Award from the New York Planning Federation. That makes the grant less of a starting gun than a bid to fund the next step, turning an award-winning planning study into the kind of implementation work that can shape whether Hillside becomes the first visible sign of change or remains another plan on the shelf.