They are an important tool, he said, because they can encourage redevelopment without uprooting businesses and residents the way urban renewal did two decades ago.

The program encourages the use of knowledge and skills to apply engineering principles to design, development and redevelopment and urban settings.

A commercial designation that allows some residential use within the building would encourage redevelopment, real estate specialists say.

That project takes advantage of a tax credit offered to businesses to encourage urban redevelopment, a company spokesman said.

A competition was held as a means to encourage redevelopment of the site for commercial use.

Bristol's generally booming economy in the 1990s encouraged some restoration and sympathetic redevelopment, initially on a small scale by individuals and businesses.

This liability web continues to throw a chill on many brownfield projects even in the presence of regulatory reforms designed to encourage redevelopment.

City agencies still need to encourage and foster redevelopment.

The goal is to use federal, state and local resources to portray a key part of the nation's history and to encourage urban redevelopment.

The bill that passed the Senate is meant to encourage redevelopment to attract businesses, and, for the first time, spur residential use of the area.