The latest grants, targeted toward projects in Clayton, Irvington, Newark (two), Plainfield and South Plainfield, total $888,000. Overall, the program has spent more than $40 million on over 500 remediation projects.

"Redevelopment of these sites has created new businesses, new housing, new tax ratables and other new opportunities," according to EDA chairman Anthony Coscia. He notes that the program dovetails with the state's growth management plan that focuses new development on urban areas and underutilized sites.

"The program has enabled municipalities to take former gas stations, abandoned manufacturing plants and contaminated former residential lots and restore them so they can be reused for constructive new development," adds EDA executive director Caren Franzini. "Funding is available to municipalities for sites they have acquired through foreclosure or purchase, or on which they hold tax certificates."

Under the terms of the program, municipalities can apply for grants or loans, and they can also be accessed by private entities. While they can apply for funding, municipal governments can't officially use them for their own purposes. Any municipality qualifies for up to $2 million a year in total assistance for projects within their borders.

The largest of the latest grants is just under $303,000, which will be used for preliminary assessment and remediation of a 6.1-acre site in Newark that formerly housed the Orbis Products Corp. The city owns the site, which is within a planned redevelopment area.

The next largest grant is just over $284,000 to complete assessment of the Second Street Redevelopment site in Plainfield, Union County. Two earlier grants for preliminary site assessment and investigation totaled more than $297,000. The other sites in the latest round of grants include an industrial parcel in South Plainfield, an abandoned industrial building in Irvington, a former gas station in Newark and a former automotive site in Clayton.