CREATIVE INITIATIVES

ARTIST IN VACANCY

NCLB’s Artist in Vacancy pilot is the first initiative to make use of the properties in our holdings that have proven the most difficult to transfer or sell. We have selected properties in our core neighborhood, within a block of each other, and in close proximity to our offices, to offer as sites to create work that will engage the community and promote arts & cultural production in the City of Newburgh. This pilot is pivotal to NCLB’s effort to launch creative initiatives as an integral part of our approach to Newburgh’s economic and community development.

DEMO & SALVAGE

Our goal at the NCLB is to take every effort to rehabilitate and save the existing historic fabric of our neighborhoods within the means of our organization to stabilize and remediate vacant and abandoned properties towards their future productive use. Unlike other land banks who have relied heavily on demolition to remove blight, we see the material, cultural and historic value of our buildings as worth preserving. In the rare cases we are not able to save a building, we explore the option to demolish the building through a deconstruction process, that creates local jobs, and salvages any re-usable material from the properties. In doing this, we address the safety and liability of structural hazards that long standing collapsed vacant buildings have on their neighbors, and conscientiously move towards new development by salvage part of the past.

(MORE INFO COMING SOON)

DOWNING PARKURBAN FARM

The City of Newburgh, the Newburgh Community Land Bank (NCLB), and the Downing Park Planning Committee with the support of Community Development Block Grant funding have embarked on this project to restore activity and programming at the former greenhouses at Downing Park. The Downing Park Urban Farm will be a place for the residents of Newburgh to learn more about urban farming and provide a pathway to self-sufficient methods of food production and sustainability within the city.