Community Development Highlighted in Downtown Concord [VIDEO]

It’s National Community Development Week and New Hampshire organizations are highlighting some of the public-private partnership successes around the state, from Laconia to Berlin to Portsmouth.

As a part of the festivities, the Community Development Finance Authority hosted a tour on April 2, of Steve Duprey’s latest Downtown Concord building, 45 S. Main St., or the Bindery building, along with Gov. Maggie Hassan and other luminaries, who highlighted the use of various authority funds, along with private development and banking, to construct or improve a number of projects in Concord, like The Friendly Kitchen and the Concord Boys & Girls Club, and others located on South Main Street, like the Concord Food Co-op renovation, the Smile Building, Meninno Place Apartments, and the Capitol Center for the Arts.

Janet Ackerman, the chairwoman of the Community Development Finance Authority’s board of directors, said the projects “would not have been possible without the resources that many of the agencies provide.” The programs, she said, “preserve the New Hampshire Advantage” and make the state the most livable in the nation. However, grants have been reduced, she noted, at a time when the funds were needed, now more than ever.

Benjamin Frost of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority said the organization was in the business of building things and assisting worthy projects that might not get built otherwise.

“But we do this,” he said, “and what we get out of it is places that people are proud to call their homes, that last a long, long time.”

Frost said the tax credit program was the most successful program turning a few million dollars into tens of millions of dollars for construction. More than $30 million annually was leverage by the authority, creating more than 430 jobs every year, he said.

While Frost was speaking about “community … being about people,” the wind blew a large chunk of Styrofoam off the building site and over the entire press conference, making everyone jump a bit and scurry.

Before speaking, Mayor Jim Bouley grabbed a hardhat and said, “I better wear this.”

“Oh no, you're expendable,” Duprey joked, adding later, "Just kidding."

“Welcome to everyone … except Steve,” Bouley countered back.

Bouley said there had been a number of projects in the city that increased the quality of life and the tax base of the city. Other community development efforts, he said, included $18.76 million in various funds, including money for the revolving loan fund for low-income families who might need help making minor repairs.

Duprey, before introducing the governor, said that in the old days when he started out in the business, multiple partners and players weren’t need to construct buildings. But now, he said, grant funds and public-private partnerships were required, working cooperatively, to play critical roles in creating jobs and constructing buildings.

In an effort to get out of the cold before the event, Hassan met with Duprey in the lobby of the Smile Building, eyeing handcrafted furniture in the lobby of the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce space and the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. After speaking and reading a proclamation, she also toured the Bindery project.

Editor's Note: Concord NH Patch will have a video feature of Gibson's Bookstore new space inside the Bindery building at 45 S. Main St. later this week.