KINGSTON--The Community Preservation Corporation will be holding its Main Street Summit on Fri., March 18 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Seven21 Media Center, 721 Broadway, Suite 100, Kingston. This free half-day seminar and networking conference focuses on downtown and Main Street redevelopment in the Hudson Valley Region and will have panel discussions focusing on private/public partnerships, NYSERDA funding, and Main Street revitalization 101.

Panelists will include Sadie McKeown, CPC Senior VP and Pat Courtney Strong, Coordinator, Mid-Hudson Energy $mart Communities Program with keynote speaker Karl Gustafson, Sr. Community Developer NY Main Street who will discuss available funding of $5M for its NY Main Street Program. Applications for this grant will be due on April 29, 2011. Gustafson will explain the process and answer questions at this seminar.

About the panelists

Sadie McKeown, CPC Senior VP

Since 1996, McKeown has served CPC as Senior VP & Director of Lending in CPC's Hudson Valley Region. In this capacity, she oversees the entire lending process from origination through underwriting, construction supervision and conversion to permanent financing. McKeown has spearheaded CPC's Downtown Main Street initiatives where the company seeks to concentrate its financial products and creativity in support of local revitalization efforts. The work that McKeown has done in conjunction with the Business Improvement District (BID) in New Rochelle has helped to shape CPC's efforts in other communities. The approach, aptly called the "New Rochelle Model," is being used in many other towns and cities throughout New York.

Pat Courtney Strong, Coordinator, Mid-Hudson Energy Smart Communities Program

Pat Courtney Strong and her team provide marketing and education outreach to 17 counties for NYSERDA under the New York Energy Smart Communities program. Since 2002, this outreach program has had Strong and her team on the road daily, discussing with homeowners, businesses, institutions, and local government the financial and technical assistance available from NYSERDA. She previously worked as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy. She is president of the Business Alliance of Kingston, which is working on revitalization through the national Main Street program. Strong also serves as VP, Industry Attraction, for The Solar Energy Consortium. Based in Kingston, Ulster County, TSEC was founded in 2007 as an industry driven not for profit that has partnered with six NYS universities and over 90 companies to establish NYS as a hub for solar energy manufacturing, research, and development.

Source: Community Preservation Corporation