Downtown Revitalization Initiative

The Staten Island Economic Development Corporation (SIEDC) and the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce recently announced a grant program that will assist small business owners, issuing funds for small projects and other necessary storefront improvements.

Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) Grant Fund

New York State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative seeks to “transform communities that are ripe for development into neighborhoods where the next generation of New Yorkers will want to love, work and raise a family.”  In 2021, the SIEDC and the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce with support of then Borough President James Oddo, celebrated the selection of Staten Island’s neighborhoods of St. George, Tompkinsville and Stapleton, as winner of a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grant from New York State.

North Shore Art Trail

Thanks to a DRI Initiative, the three vibrant town centers of “Downtown Staten Island” (St. George, Tompkinsville and Stapleton) will soon be even better linked together through the creation of a North Shore Art Trail. 

This public art program through which proposals will be brought to life along the Bay Street corridor, will help knit together disparate areas of downtown and beautify key sites along both the corridor and the waterfront.  The Trail will include up to 30 outdoor installations focused on Bay Street, Front Street, and side streets connecting those main streets to the waterfront greenway. The program will include art installed on the walls of buildings, in small open areas and a variety of unique spaces. The various mediums will include murals, street painting, commissioned sculptures, digital art, and significant permanent installations, among others, with a focus on sustainability and the environment.

 Artists will be selected via a proposal process and selected by a Staten Island Economic Development Corporation-lead committee of local arts experts and stakeholders in the community.  

The first installations are expected by the Spring of 2023.