Lynn lands $75G revitalization grant

LYNN – The city has been awarded a $75,000 grant from the state Department of Housing and Community Development to help redevelop Market Street in the downtown business district.Rep. Robert Fennell, a Lynn Democrat, said local and state officials have been working for years toward the revitalization of the city’s downtown. “This grant along with many other recent projects, such as the funding for improvements to the Lynn Heritage State Park Museum and the street lighting initiative on Munroe Street, is another piece to that puzzle,” he said.Fennell said the grant should help rejuvenate Market Street and spur further improvement projects in the historic neighborhood.As part of the state agency’s Gateway Plus Action Grant (GPAG) program, a total of $1.35 million has been appropriated to 18 cities and towns across the state. The grants are designed to assist those Massachusetts communities with a population above 35,000 and with median income below the state average in expanding housing opportunities, encouraging business development and increasing the green space footprint in otherwise densely populated districts, Fennell said.Rep. Steve Walsh, a member of the Lynn delegation in the state Legislature, said the most recent grant “will help bring economic development and job creation into the heart of the city.”Walsh added that the Market Street Master Plan, together with the plan for the city’s waterfront and the rest of the downtown, “will be a significant step in Lynn’s revitalization and most importantly towards new jobs.”Sen. Thomas McGee of Lynn said downtown Lynn has enormous potential but needs a coordinated effort between city and state to realize it.Over the past three years, the downtown business district has been refitted with decorative streetlamps, new sidewalks and repaved streets as part of an ongoing enhancement effort. The latest phase of the project has been focused on Central Square and Mt. Vernon Street.