Montgomery reports $50M in grant wins, buys downtown parcels for convention-center expansion

Unidentified Speaker said Montgomery's 'grant velocity' produced about $50,000,000 in awards last year and highlighted several major program amounts: roughly $17,000,000 toward electric buses (about 52% complete), about $20,000,000 for a clean-transit workforce initiative, and about $3,600,000 for what he called a HUD Pro Housing program. He said the city is also advocating to restore a rescinded Neighborhood Access and Equity grant.

As part of downtown development plans, the speaker said the city purchased 425 and 475 Moulton Street for approximately $5.5 million to secure property for future redevelopment and to roughly double the convention center's size. He said marketing and impact studies have been completed and will be shared with the council and public; the speaker estimated an annual ROI in the range of $75 million to $100 million.

The speaker also said city leaders met with United Soccer League stakeholders about a potential professional soccer team and stadium and discussed youth and developmental-league opportunities to leverage the FIFA World Cup momentum.

No council action on the purchases was recorded during the briefing; the remarks were an update on ongoing economic-development work.