Governor Hochul announced the creation of the NY Forward program to invigorate and enliven downtowns in New York’s smaller and rural communities—the type of downtowns found in villages, hamlets and other small, neighborhood-scale municipal centers. NY Forward builds on the success of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) by adopting the same “Plan-then-Act” strategy as the DRI.
Advancing the Renaissance of Our Smaller Downtowns NY Forward Round 3
Governor Hochul announced the third round of the NY Forward program, a program targeted at revitalizing smaller and rural communities. This year, NYF will again invest $100 million. Each of the State’s ten Regional Economic Development Councils (REDCs) will have the option of recommending two communities for $4.5 million NY Forward awards, bringing the total amount of funding allocated for all rounds of DRI and NYF to $1.2 billion.
Participant Resources
Plan-Then-Act Strategy How NYF Works
Advancing the Renaissance of Our Smaller Downtowns NY Forward Round 2
In 2023, Governor Hochul announced the second round of the NY Forward program, a program targeted at revitalizing smaller and rural communities. For round two of NYF, the State invested another $100 million in NYF awards; bringing the total amount of funding allocated for all rounds of DRI and NYF to $1 billion.