Jamestown hears update on Gateway redevelopment; $640,000 in HOME funds proposed for site remediation

Jamestown City Council members on March 24 heard a presentation on the Gateway redevelopment project and were asked to consider using $640,000 in HOME funds to support site remediation and preparation work.

Project representatives said the redevelopment will include residential units reserved for service‑provider referrals, significant brownfield remediation and historic‑preservation work that has driven up costs. Steve Alt, a project representative, said the primary funding source is the New York State Housing Finance Agency and that the agency indicated it could close in the first quarter of next year. “Our project is actually coming in under 5%,” Alt said, referring to the market‑study capture rate used by the state agency.

The proposal matters because the site was previously used by a hardware finishing operation and requires soil remediation and asbestos abatement before renovations. Presenters told the council the increased project cost—from earlier estimates near $42 million to a current figure cited as $77 million—owes largely to remediation, energy‑efficiency upgrades required by financing rules and historic‑preservation constraints imposed by National Park Service review. Those constraints include keeping large, original windows and using higher‑performance exterior insulation, which the presenters said is more expensive.

Project details presented to the council include a residential…