Commonwealth Places
MassDevelopment’s Commonwealth Places program is a competitive opportunity to advance locally driven placemaking in downtown and neighborhood commercial districts in communities throughout Massachusetts. Placemaking is a collaborative process through which people in communities work together to improve vacant, underutilized, or repurposed publicly -accessible spaces and maximize their shared value. The process facilitates creative patterns of use, and leverages the local physical, cultural, and social assets that define a place and support its ongoing evolution.
Commonwealth Places is part of the Community One Stop for Growth, a single application portal and collaborative review process of community development grant programs that makes targeted investments based on a Development Continuum.
Funding Categories
Commonwealth Places will make awards through two funding categories:
Seed Grants
Seed grants are used to fund inclusive community engagement, visioning, and local capacity-building that will directly support future placemaking efforts. Projects should focus on promoting an inclusive participation process within the planning, positioning, or activities that will support those efforts. A seed project should ultimately lead to the improvement of vacant, underutilized, or repurposed publicly -accessible spaces.
- MassDevelopment will award seed grants of between $2,500 and $15,000. A 1:1 local match, either cash or in-kind, is required.
Implementation Grants
Implementation grants are used to support the implementation of locally -led placemaking projects by covering costs for physical assets, programmatic expenses, or other items and services related to the actual execution of a project. Projects should improve or enhance vacant, underutilized, or repurposed publicly -accessible spaces and must relate to local economic and community development priorities that are contextual to the city, town, or neighborhood.
- MassDevelopment will award implementation grants of between $5,000 and $50,000. A 1:1 local cash match is required.
Key Dates and Deadlines
- Expressions of Interest Open December 14, 2022
- Expression of Interest submissions accepted through March 17, 2023
- Full Application Available: January 2023
- Full Application Submission Period Open: May 2023
- Full Application Submission Period Closes: June 2, 2023
- Review & Evaluation: June-September 2023
- Notification of Award: October/November 2023
- Anticipated Contracting: November/December 2023
For more information:
Nick Giaquinto, TDI Operations Officer
Email: ngiaquinto@massdevelopment.com
