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ROCKY MOUNT – The Golden LEAF Foundation announced on September 23 the launch of the new Golden LEAF SITE program.
The program will help communities identify potential industrial sites for economic development, perform due diligence to prepare sites for industrial development, and expand utilities to perform coarse grading and clearing of sites requiring due diligence. Has been done.
Golden LEAF has budgeted $ 10 million for the program this fiscal year, which will be awarded in two rounds: Fall 2021 and Spring 2022. Applications for the Fall 2021 round are due on October 14 at noon for consideration by the board. of the Golden LEAF Foundation at their December 2021 meeting. Golden LEAF will set aside at least $ 5 million to fund the SITE program in Spring 2022. The application deadline for the Spring 2022 cycle will be announced later this year .
To kick off the new SITE program, Golden LEAF staff will host an information webinar at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 29.
“During a strategic planning process that we completed earlier this year, the board of directors of Golden LEAF identified gaps in the funding available to support the development of sites needed to attract businesses, particularly in rural and economically disadvantaged areas, â€said Golden LEAF board chairman Bo Biggs. “In response to these findings, the SITE program was designed to support the identification, preparation and development of sites to attract quality jobs to these communities. “
Golden LEAF created the SITE program with a three-phase approach: identification assistance to identify potential industrial sites in communities that currently do not have quality industrial sites to market, due diligence funding to complete eligible due diligence activities such as environmental assessments, archaeological analyzes, and funding for mapping and public infrastructure development and, for public sites, clearing and coarse grading, for the benefit of sites that have demonstrated due diligence to demonstrate that the site is suitable for development.
“Golden LEAF wants the SITE program to complement other existing site preparation and development programs in North Carolina and has coordinated its requirements with these other programs,†said Scott T. Hamilton, President and CEO of Golden LEAF. “Applicants will be able to start the process in any of the three phases, and a site will be able to move from identification to development over time. “
The timing of the first round of funding is aimed at meeting immediate needs. Golden LEAF will launch a second round in early 2022 with the intention that it will be a long-term Golden LEAF program.
Golden LEAF will continue to update the information available regarding the requirements of the SITE program and may change the requirements before the next cycle in early 2022 or other future cycles.
The Golden LEAF Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 1999 to receive a portion of funding from North Carolina under the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with cigarette manufacturers. For 20 years, Golden LEAF has strived to increase economic opportunities in rural and tobacco-dependent communities of North Carolina through its leadership in grantmaking, collaboration, innovation and stewardship in as an independent and perpetual foundation.
The foundation has had a lasting impact on the state’s rural, tobacco-dependent, economically struggling areas by helping to create 66,000 jobs, over half a billion dollars in new wages and over 90,000 workers. trained or retrained for higher wages.
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