Casino money to pay for 11 North Side community projects
North Side community groups will get a big payout from the Rivers Casino this week, officials said yesterday.
The Northside Leadership Conference announced that 11 projects will get grants or loans funded by the casino's first of three annual $1 million contributions to the conference. The donations are required by the casino's gaming license.
"They're all projects that individual neighborhoods have wanted to move forward for a long time, but they all also have an impact on the North Side as a whole," said Mark Fatla, executive director of the NSLC.
For example, the Historic Deutschtown Development Corp. got an $80,000 grant to restore the facade of a building at the corner of East Street and East Ohio Street.
"It's a huge facade and its a highly visible corner for people passing on the interstate," said Barbara Burns, president of the development corporation. "It will make a wonderful statement about the reinvestment in the businesses further down the corridor."
About 40 percent of the total casino money will go to the Northside Community Development Fund to be awarded as loans to businesses, so some of the $3 million can be stretched out and "recycled," Fatla said.
"We're very glad to have the Rivers Casino as a partner," said Ahmed Martin, executive director of the Manchester Citizens Corporation, which will get $75,000 for its ongoing Manchester Renaissance project to restore historic homes and build new ones. "Placing a casino so close to a residential neighborhood is obviously going to have an impact; I'm glad it can be a mutually beneficial relationship."
Other awards will include:
• $36,400 to the Allegheny West Civic Council for "Western Renewed!"
• $7,500 to the Fineview Citizens Council for the Fineview Gateway Project.
• $20,000 to the Central Northside Neighborhood Council for buying and preserving 1108 Federal St.
• $10,000 to CNNC for commercial facade grants on Federal Street.
• $2,500 to CNNC for public safety improvements around the "Garden Theater Block."
• $75,000 to the Brighton Heights Citizens Federation for the St. John's development site.
• $75,000 and a $125,000 loan to the Brightwood Civic Group toward buying and revitalizing properties along Woodland Avenue.
• $20,000 loan to the Fineview Citizens Council for predevelopment on Lanark Street.
The remainder of the $1 million will be used by the Northside Development Fund as loans for area businesses.
