ChesterPA

peaked at 66,000. However, by the 1960s, the city began losing its mainstay shipyard and auto- mobile manufacturing base, and the population began to plummet. In 1995, the state designated Chester as a “financially distressed municipality,” and in 1999, it became eligible for Pennsylvania’s Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) program, a state initiative that offers tax incentives for investments in KOZ-designated areas. Since the late 1990s, Chester has received 1.36 billion dollars in public and private investment, funds that the city has used to restore its parks system, improve and expand its housing, attract new business, generate thousands of job opportunities, and invest into future development projects. Drake Nakaishi is the Executive Director of the Chester Economic Development Authority, a qua- si-governmental agency whose Board members are appointed by the City Council and the Mayor.The Authority’s mandate is to administer, on behalf of the city, funds from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Commu- nity Development Block Grant (CDGB) program for community services activities such as affordable CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA housing and anti-poverty programs, as well as for infrastructure development and demolition. Na- kaishi also heads the city’s Redevelopment Author- ity, another quasi-governmental agency, which is charged with selling Chester’s 600 pieces of city- owned property to potential developers. Nakaishi speaks about some of the current projects going on in the city: “We’ve broken ground on an 89-bed, all-suite hotel next to City Hall,” he begins. “It’s a Candlewood Suites, part of the Hol- iday Inn chain. One block from City Hall, we have a construction company that is revitalizing one of our old storefronts to put in a new retail location, called Villa. It’s high end sports shoes and apparel. They’ve started demolition and we’re hopeful they can open within a year. “We are also helping to support some improve- ment on the Kimberly-Clark site in the city– they have about 600 employees and they’re planning a new co-generation plant that will switch from coal to natural gas, so we’re helping them secure $28 million from the state –what they call a RACP grant and other state funding for the conversion. That will make them more competitive and also enable them to reduce their carbon footprint. “PennDOT (The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation) is re-doing every bridge and over- pass on I-95 that is in the City of Chester. They’re also improving the on and off ramps for getting in and out of the city and they’ve already started construction of those ramps. It will take about an- other 18 months to complete.We’ve also gotten a PennDOT grant for improvement of Avenue of the States between 6th and 7th Streets. It will greatly help our merchants and we’re hopeful that some of the vacant storefronts will then change over