Village of Herkimer launching its Brownfield Opportunity Area Plan

Herkimer, NY – The Village of Herkimer has officially launched its Brownfield Opportunity Area Plan. To accompany the launch, the Village will be hosting a series of engagement events with students of the Herkimer middle and high school and Herkimer Community College. More information about the project can be found at www.herkimerboa.com.

The Village of Herkimer has undertaken significant planning and investment in the downtown. In 2024, the Village was selected as a Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) Round 7 community and awarded a $10 million grant to enhance downtown vibrancy through strategic investments and catalytic projects. The final projects selected for the $10 million DRI funding will be announced in the coming months. The Village is building on that near-term investment vision to look at longer term opportunities to revitalize underutilized sites through the Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) Plan. By coupling these two initiatives, the Village of Herkimer can take both short-term and long-term approaches to revitalizing and redeveloping its downtown core; the DRI will fund more immediate transformation projects through a competitive proposal process, while the BOA Plan will work to further attract investment and funding opportunities to Herkimer.

The NYS Department of State’s (DOS’s) BOA program, used since 2005 to assist communities in attracting investment statewide, originally focused on brownfield sites, but has evolved to encompass broader opportunities for revitalizing underutilized properties and areas. This initiative aims to transform these sites over time from liabilities into community assets through comprehensive planning at a community scale.

The BOA plan will build on the work done so far in the DRI, which determined, through community input, a vision and goals to revitalize the Village’s downtown. The BOA will continue to be a publicly driven planning process meant to ensure that the community’s priorities are at the heart of the plan’s strategies. The first engagement opportunity of the BOA will focus on a vital group of residents that the BOA is seeking to collect input from – Herkimer’s students and youth. On November 20th, members of the project team will host assemblies for middle school and high school students to contribute their opinions on the future of the Village’s downtown, followed by an open event at Herkimer Community College to speak with college students about what would draw them in to the Village more often.

The project is being led by a project team including the Herkimer County IDA, Village staff, a BOA committee, and a consultant team led by LaBella Associates.

To learn more about the Herkimer BOA and stay up to date on the Plan’s progress, findings, and public events, visit the project website www.herkimerboa.com  or contact Norabelle Greenberger at 518-824-1933 or ngreenberger@labellapc.com.