Southern Tier DRI / NYF Consultants

In 2022, the Department of State (DOS) issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) #22-DRINYF-20 seeking consultants to provide the Downtown Revitalization Initative (DRI) and New York Forward (NYF) programs with planning services for 5 years (beginning on 1/1/2023). This procurement resulted in 20 consultants being selected representing each of the 10 REDC regions of New York State in each program area.

For the Southeren Tier, the current Awardee's are unable to perform the services in Section 2 of the RFP, therefore DOS obtained approval to include the Southeren Tier Scope within the existing contracts of Buckhurst, Fish & Jaquemart, Inc dba BFJ Planning for the Southern Tier NYF and HR&A Advisors Inc for the Southern Tier DRI, to perform the work for Years 4 and 5.

Each consultant or team of consultants assists the DRI and NYF Local Planning Committees (LPC) with preparing a Strategic Investment Plan for either the DRI and/or NYF areas which builds on previous planning work in their downtowns. [...] Each plan will include a community vision, and goals for revitalization that are based on an assessment of local assets and opportunities and propose a series of implementation-ready projects that will focus public and private investment on revitalization within the downtown area. The proposed projects will address economic development, transportation, housing, energy efficiency, and community development needs. Projects proposed in the Strategic Investment Plans must be viable and economically feasible; must be organized around the central goal of neighborhood transformation; and should leverage additional public and private investments.

As per Section 6.3 of the RFP "In the event that the awarded Proposer is unavailable or does not have the capacity to take on the project in their awarded Program/Region in future years, DOS may contract with the next highest scoring Proposer who is available and has the capacity to take on the project."