A coalition from Alaska titled Southeast Conference was chosen – which is comprised of Coastal Alaska regions including Southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound, Southwest Alaska, and the Kenai Peninsula was one of the sixty finalists announced for the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s $1 billion “Build Back Better Regional Challenge”. The challenge aims to boost economic pandemic recovery and rebuild American communities, including some that have been grappling with decades of disinvestment.
The Build Back Better Regional Challenge provides transformative investments – up to $100 million per grantee – to develop and strengthen regional industry clusters across the country, while embracing economic equity, creating good-paying jobs, and enhancing U.S. competitiveness globally. The sixty finalists were chosen from a pool of 529 applicants and will each receive a grant of $500,000 to further develop their proposed projects.
Tim Dillon, Executive Director for the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District told KSRM that the goal is to develop a viable and sustainable mariculture industry:
“We got together and tried to figure out what we could do for mariculture. As you probably know, the southeast has really developed some things, they’re probably a little bit ahead of where we are in the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound and Southwest. What we’re trying to do is see whether there was an opportunity for us to enhance mariculture. When I mean enhance, a lot of the mariculture folks, they are really cottage industries right now here on the Peninsula instead of being full blown 12 month out of the year things. What we were looking at was – is this a way for us to enhance them to develop them into a bigger business?”
Dillon said that the deadline for Phase 2 is March 15, 2022:
“We’ll be able to put together a very, very competitive package. Hopefully we’ll be one of the 30 that get chosen to be fully funded. We are asking for $50 million out of the ARPA funds to be able to create a mariculture industry here in Alaska that winds up being another key revenue stream.”
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