Staunton Crossing approved for Virginia Business Ready Site Program grant

Staunton Crossing has won approval for an $850,780 Virginia Business Ready Site Program development grant, one of 11 projects to win a grant award this week.

Administered by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, this discretionary program develops and characterizes sites to enhance the Commonwealth’s infrastructure and promote its competitive business environment.

The program identifies, assesses, and improves the readiness of potential industrial sites, which must contain a minimum of 100 contiguous, developable acres.

“Companies want to invest in the Commonwealth, and this program is critical to making it easier for businesses to do business here,” Gov. Ralph Northam said. “Virginia has been named the best state in which to do business in for three years, and investments like these are part of the reason why.”

Localities can apply for grants to assist with the costs associated with the initial assessment and the development required to upgrade a particular site.

“The Virginia Business Ready Sites Program is a powerful economic development tool that gives localities the resources they need to assess and develop sites for economic development opportunities,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. “These projects across the Commonwealth will strengthen Virginia’s business portfolio and our overall competitiveness.”

The Virginia Business Site Ready Program was developed by a team of state, regional, and local stakeholders including the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, railroad representatives, utility representatives, civil engineers, and other government, business, and industry representatives.

Grants are considered on a competitive basis and made at the discretion of the Virginia Business Ready Site Program Project Review Committee and the Funding Approval Committee. The most recent round of program funding was highly competitive with 25 applications from communities across Virginia totaling more than $50 million in cumulative funding requests.

More information on the VBRSP is available here.