Baltimore City Mayor Catherine Pugh has announced plans to launch a Neighborhood Impact Investment Fund to help spur investment in the City’s distressed neighborhoods. The mayor intends to raise $55 million by leasing several city-owned parking garages to help jump-start the fund and encourage more investment in it.

The Baltimore Sun reports:

The fund will be designed to focus on the city’s historically-neglected neighborhoods that the federal government defines as “severely distressed” — a swath of the city that includes much of East and West Baltimore. She said the city’s contribution would help kick-start private investment through the fund, a strategy used in similar programs in Cincinnati, Detroit, New York City and San Francisco.

The fund would be managed by a new nonprofit entity that would be governed by a board of “business and civic leaders” along with city government officials, the mayor said.

The article notes that the fund proposal will first have to be approved by the City Council and Board of Estimates.

Read The Baltimore Sun to learn more.