New York City Brownfield Incentive Grant (BIG) Program, Pre-Development Design Grant

The Pre-Development Design Grant helps with early planning for brownfield redevelopment. Brownfields are empty or underused sites where environmental contamination may complicate redevelopment or reuse. These grants help with redevelopment planning before environmental field investigation and clean up.

To qualify for this grant:

• The property must be in New York City.
• You need to demonstrate with documentation that the property could be contaminated.

Grant award amounts

• You can get up to $5,000 for Pre-Development Design activities.

• You can get up to $10,000 if your project helps the community. These are called Preferred Community Development Projects. Examples include:

  • Affordable housing developments
  • Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) compliant properties
  • Community facility developments

Eligible services and activities

You can use the grant for:

• Title insurance
• Title search
• Market analysis
• Conceptual plans
• Pro formas
• Zoning analysis
• Community outreach
• Site survey
• Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments

Note

The Pre-Development Design Grants are part of the New York City Brownfield Incentive Grant (BIG) Program. This program helps clean and redevelop brownfields in New York City.

To get reimbursed, services must be done by a professional registered as a Qualified Vendor with the BIG Program Administrator. New vendors are added regularly.

For more information, contact the Mayor's Office of Environmental Remediation.

Make sure you have the following information ready:

• The street address of the site you will check
• The estimated size of the site (in hectares or square feet)
• The borough, block, lot number and zoning of the site
• Dates of any Brownfield Incentive Grants (BIGs) you got before
• A Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment or other proof that the property has a Recognized Environmental Condition that has not been cleaned up

The Brownfield Incentive Grant (BIG) Program Grant Administrator will determine whether your documents show possible contamination at the site.

Examples of acceptable documents are:

• A Phase 1 Environmental Sites Assessment report
• Records of past site use
• Records from old fire insurance maps
• Information from looking at and testing the site

Possible contamination at a site can be:

• Any dangerous substances on the property that might have been released
• A risk of releasing any dangerous substances into buildings on the property
• A risk of releasing any dangerous substances into the ground, groundwater or surface water of the property

• Complete the BIG Program application: You can find it in the additional resources section. Include bills for services and activities done by a Qualified Vendor.
• Email the completed application: Send it as an attachment to the BIG Program Administrator at grants@nycbig.info.
• The administrator will check that your application is complete and whether you and your project are eligible.
• The administrator will notify you of the decision about the grant award.
• If you are awarded the grant, you will get a reimbursement check for the funds you requested in the grant application.