$36 million in NYS grant funds has been invested Oswego County in a period of 10 years
by Austin Wheelock | ooc@oswegocounty.org
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in early March that the village of Mexico will receive $4.5 million as one of the Central New York region winners of the fourth round of the New York Forward program.
This is the sixth successful application from Oswego County for the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and New York Forward programs since the program was initiated 10 years ago.
The Downtown Revitalization Initiative, or DRI, was originally created in 2016 and managed by the New York State Department of State to assist small urban communities across the state with redeveloping their downtowns and building upon local assets like waterfront, arts, culture and existing industries by strategically investing state funding in multiple projects that are transformational and synergistic. The New York Forward program, or NYF, was created in 2022 to address a similar need in smaller, more rural hamlets, towns and villages.
Over this time, Oswego County communities have shown a strong track record of developing winning proposals and collaborative implementation processes that have led to dozens of public and private sector projects. Before the Mexico announcement earlier this year, the previous five Oswego County winners were the city of Oswego DRI in 2016, the city of Fulton DRI in 2019, the village of Phoenix NYF in 2023, the hamlet of Brewerton NYF in 2024 and the village of Pulaski DRI in 2025.
In total, $36 million in New York state grant funds has been invested and committed to 50 projects across those communities that when fully completed will leverage over $240 million in private investment.
Here are the results to date from the DRI and NYF winners from Oswego County.
Downtown Revitalization Initiative Communities
In 2016, the city of Oswego was awarded $10 million during the first round of DRI.
Oswego’s vision was to build off recent momentum and target funding to buildings and sites that had great potential to spur further development. The proposal was highlighted by projects like the Litatro Building, Riverwalk, Cahill Landing and Eastlake Commons, among others that would transform the downtown and waterfront through the addition of new mixed-use developments, which would bring additional jobs, visitors and residents to the city of Oswego.
Fast forward over six years to July 2023 and Oswego was the first community in New York state to successfully complete all of their DRI projects with the completion of Splash Indoor Water Park. The $10 million in DRI funding was able to leverage almost $100 million in private investment in the city of Oswego and has led to dozens of other private sector investments without state support.
The city of Fulton was named a Round Four $10 Million DRI winner in August 2019. Fulton’s proposal leveraged the city’s historic downtown waterfront and local economic drivers: health, hospitality and manufacturing industries as well as supporting its innovative entrepreneurs to enhance the city’s natural and cultural attractions. Shortly after winning, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the implementation progress considerably, delaying the final list of state supported projects until 2021 and led to unanticipated cost increases and supply chain issues that have slowed some of the larger projects. Nonetheless, many of the projects like Huhtamaki’s streetscape improvements and equipment modernization, Oswego Health’s campus expansion, Good Guys Barber Shop expansion, Lorbird restaurant, Fitzpatrick Financial and several others have been completed. In 2026, major progress will be made in the demolition of Building 30 at the former Nestle site and construction related to both public and private sector projects should continue to move the rest of the projects toward completion.
In 2025, the village of Pulaski was awarded with $10 million for its proposal to revitalize its downtown, develop new housing and invest in parks and outdoor recreation in the waterfront along the Salmon River. In 2026, 11 projects were ultimately selected to receive funding that will invest in mixed-use downtown buildings, support purpose-built housing for seniors, develop comprehensive streetscape improvements and catalyze the ambitious expansion of a waterfront park. The village of Pulaski and private project owners will work with state, county and other local partners to help implement these projects over the next several years. At completion, these projects will enhance the village’s position as a tourism destination while improving the quality of life for its residents through new jobs and housing.
New York Forward Communities
In 2023, the village of Phoenix developed a winning proposal by focusing on the community’s rich 19th century history and character centered around Lock 1 of the Oswego Canal on the Oswego River.
Phoenix’s Canal Waterfront District and an emerging commercial district near the elementary school on Volney Street were the focus of NY Forward funds. Eleven projects were awarded from both the private and public sectors ranging from mixed-use downtown redevelopment and waterfront development to expanding much needed services like healthcare, childcare, fire protection and sewer infrastructure. Due to the unique public waterfront assets in Phoenix, the redevelopment of North Island into a tourism destination with an entertainment pavilion, boat docks, dog park and recreation trails was a key submission in the final list of awarded projects. To date, multiple projects have been completed including the expansion of Lock 1 Distillery. Several other projects are underway to be completed in 2026 and 2027.
In 2024, the hamlet of Brewerton — which encompasses the waterfront communities of the towns of Hastings and Cicero and straddles both sides of the Oneida River — embraced the opportunity to bring the two towns together to collaborate on a joint, mutually supported application.
Given both communities’ proximity to the Micron semi-conductor site, NY Forward investments are being viewed as the first step toward intentional, strategic and collaborative planning and development to address the opportunities and challenges presented by Micron by welcoming new residents, visitors and businesses in the years to come. Brewerton focused their funding into four transformational projects that added new housing, improved waterfront parks, invested into the local library and developed mixed-use commercial space. Lighthouse Park on the Hastings side of the river will be an improved tourism destination and bring visitors to the town and to the many restaurants and other businesses that line the waterfront.
After its March 2026 New York Forward award announcement, the village of Mexico will now begin the process of developing a strategic investment plan to revitalize its historic downtown along the 104 corridor determining which public and private sector projects to prioritize. A local planning committee made up of municipal representatives, community leaders and other stakeholders will lead these efforts, supported by a team of private sector experts and state planners to help Mexico determine how to best spend $4.5 million. This process will take upwards of six months and this time next year, another slate of projects will be formally announced to receive funding that will be transformative for the village.
The DRI and NYF programs have been extremely successful statewide and have provided small cities and communities with much needed resources to reinvent themselves and attract new investment. Over the past 10 years the program has also generated numerous case studies from winning proposals as well as technical assistance resources for additional communities that are interested in participating.
Operation Oswego County, Inc. looks forward to continue working together with the municipalities across Oswego County to put together winning proposals and assisting them to implement projects through financing and technical support.
Austin M. Wheelock, certified economic developer (CEcD), is the executive director of Operation Oswego County, Inc. For more information, call 315-343-1545 or visit www.oswegocounty.org.
