Worcester uses $500K Polar Park settlement to launch grant program for minority- and woman-owned construction firms
Photo | courtesy of Steve Sullivan at Building Mass Careers
Workers from underrepresented backgrounds particpating in the Building Mass Careers program. The City of Worcester announced on Tuesday a new grant program aiming to boost woman- and minority-owned construction firms.
The City of Worcester is offering grants of up to $25,000 for certified minority- and woman-owned businesses to help expand their capacity for contracting opportunities, using the $500,000 awarded to the City in its settlement over how such contractors weren’t used in the construction of the Polar Park ballpark.
Applications are now open for the grant program, which will offer between $10,000 and $25,000 to qualifying businesses. The program is being funded from the 2022 settlement where Gilbane Building of Providence, Rhode Island, and Hunt Construction Group of Indianapolis, paid the state $1.9 million for misrepresenting their use of woman- and minority-owned subcontractors during the construction of the $160-million Polar Park. The City received $500,000 of that settlement.
“This exciting program builds on the municipality’s existing efforts to support the certification of minority and women-owned businesses,” Eric Batista, Worcester city manager, said in a Monday press release. “It also aligns with the goals we set out in the Worcester Now | Next long-range plan to enable and support diverse neighborhood scale commerce in order to contribute to community wealth-building, neighborhood stabilization, and quality of life along neighborhood commercial corridors. Investing in these businesses will mean investing in our neighborhoods.”
Applicants must be certified by the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office or recognized third-party certifying agencies as a minority- or woman-owned business, must be an active for-profit company in the construction sector or related industries in the City of Worcester, and must be in good standing with the Commonwealth and City. Selected businesses will be required to provide documentation on how the funds are used.
Grant funding requests will be capped at 25% of yearly business expenses, up to $25,000.
The application for the grant program can be found here.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
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