Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., left, shows a photo of the Division Street building that will be constructed to house the Center for Urban Revitalization and Entrepreneurship as well as NCALL.
Delaware State University will use $1 million in federal funds to build an urban revitalization center.
The money will come through a federal grant, announced Tuesday on campus by U.S. Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester.
The Center for Urban Revitalization and Entrepreneurship will be located at 225 W. Division Street in downtown Dover, one block from the university’s Dover Campus.
DSU expects the center to be a small business incubator that will assist in the development of new and startup companies.
Allen said Tuesday that small businesses are the fabric of America. They provide jobs, build communities, and promote the ingenuity inside of every citizen.
“Unlocking that talent is the key,” Allen said in a press release. “Today’s appropriation for the University’s Center for Urban Revitalization and Entrepreneurship is a significant step toward that objective, particularly in and around the DSU Downtown Dover campus.”
The award comes as part of a year-long process in which Blunt Rochester’s office received more than 150 applications for grants from a $24 million Community Project Fund.
The space will be shared with NCALL Research Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Dover, Delaware, that specializes in affordable housing development, education and lending.
Until the center is built, Delaware State will operate the hub in a temporary location on the corner of Loockerman and South State Streets.
Blunt Rochester said this project focuses on three areas: jobs, partnership and innovation.
“CURE will help drive both our economic and community development in Kent County, strengthen partnerships between the federal government, higher education, and nonprofits,” she said, “and encourage entrepreneurs to be innovative in ideas and practice.”
Karen Speakman, executive director of NCALL, said Tuesday that this project couldn’t come at a more important time.
“The center is the result of many talks between NCALL and Delaware State University on how to we could both be more present in the community and provide a small business incubator for community-based entrepreneurship in downtown Dover,” she said.
The new center will supplement the $1.24 million that NCALL has raised from various sources such as the Delaware’s Community Reinvestment Fund and the Longwood Foundation to make this building a reality, she said.
Jarek Rutz can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at (215) 450-9982. Follow him on Twitter @jarekrutz and on LinkedIn.
Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running CNN’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before joining Delaware LIVE News.
Jarek can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at (215) 450-9982. Follow him on Twitter @jarekrutz
Share this Post