New Bedford Gets Selected For Personnel Program

New Bedford has been selected for a program that will allow the city to bring in personnel to help with urban development.

MassDevelopment announced Tuesday that the city made it to the second round of the Transformative Development Initiative.

The program will allow the city to hire individuals, who will be known as TDI Fellows, to provide "a range of real estate development services to support local visions for redevelopment, and to catalyze and leverage investments and economic activities."

The TDI Fellows will have backgrounds in city planning, community partnership building, real estate, and economic development.

“This funding will help New Bedford recruit top talent in its effort to attract new businesses to its historical downtown, a crucial part of the process of reinvigorating commerce in our city,” said State Representative Antonio F.D. Cabral “ I'm very excited to see what this new chapter in the partnership between MassDevelopment and the City of New Bedford will produce in the coming year.”

They will work in the TDI district for a three year period while collaborating with local partnerships and will focus on the Downtown area of New Bedford.

“We have an ambitious agenda for the TDI district in downtown New Bedford that is ready to really take-off,” said Mayor Jon Mitchell. “The ability to have a MassDevelopment fellow ensures our TDI partnership will have the sustainable bandwidth to execute to our potential. Investments like this are critical and MassDevelopment continues to be one of our strongest economic development partners."

Those interested in becoming a TDI Fellow can submit an application at MassDevelopment's website.

The Fellows positions will begin in the spring of 2016.

Brockton and Pittsfield were also selected.