By Patrick McGroarty
News Editor

A new grant program created by the Massachusetts Convention Center will extend access to mitigation funds originally reserved for South Boston non-profits to organizations across the city.

The plan, orchestrated by state Sen. Jack Hart and James Rooney, executive director of the convention center, was met with reserved appreciation in Dorchester, where neighborhood leaders grumbled last summer at what they considered a double slight: the loss of gate show business at the Bayside Expo Center and exclusion from access to mitigation funding that would be distributed to South Boston non-profits to offset the negative impact of increased traffic caused by gate shows at the mammoth convention center in South Boston.

The publicly-funded Massachusetts Convention Center was originally built with the understanding that it could not host gate shows, or regional trade shows that had traditionally been held at sites like Dorchester's Bayside Expo Center and the World Trade Center in South Boston. But show promoters anxious to expand profitable shows like the New England Boat Show began to lobby to change that law several years ago, and in August of 2006 a bill passed in the state legislature that allows the sprawling convention center to host gate shows if a portion of show revenues were donated to South Boston nonprofits as mitigation.

Deirdre Habershaw, the newly elected president of the Columbia-Savin Hill Civic Association, acknowledged that Dorchester residents were frustrated last summer with the exclusion from access to the mitigation funds, particularly in light of the heavy blow the legislation would strike to business at the Bayside Expo Center. In recent months, officials from Corcoran Jennison Companies, who own Bayside, have acknowledged that losing the boat show and the potential loss of other large gate shows means they will have to consider re-developing the sprawling Columbia Point property.

"Obviously even this doesn't do anything to help Bayside, but I'm glad [the MCCA] is making an effort to include us, because the rest of the city did pay for construction of the convention center," said Habershaw. "I feel like because of the added traffic concerns there should be something for Dorchester above and beyond other neighborhoods of the city, but I don't know if there's really an equitable way to do that."

Hart admitted that as a representative of both South Boston and Dorchester the process had been a tricky one for him to navigate. He said that securing some benefit for residents of the Dorchester and Mattapan sections of his first Suffolk district had always been a priority.

"The neighborhood didn't have any program when gate shows were over at Bayside Expo. I would have loved to say, 'Let's just allocate all the money for the people of my district, but that's not realistic or fair," said Hart. "What I'm hoping can happen is that the wonderful community organizations who are very aggressive at applying for funds and grants &endash; through working with them and trying to help in any way I can, hopefully Dorchester and Mattapan can reap as much benefit as anybody."

In the language of the bill that originally cleared the convention center to host gate shows, show promoters must donate 10 cents per square foot of exhibition space used to a community fund and one dollar from the price of each admission ticket. The New England Boat Show, which closed last Saturday, was the first gate show held at the convention center, and Rooney estimates that close to $100,000 was generated for the South Boston fund. Through the new plan, the MCCA will match that figure for all future gate shows to fund the new citywide account. The Boat Show has currently signed a five year contract for with the convention center, meaning a potential donation of half a million dollars to the South Boston fund and an additional half million for groups citywide.

"We don't plan to sit on it," said Rooney. "This is money that gets collected as shows occur. It's a win-win for everybody that signals a sort of new day in cooperation."

Boston-based non-profits that work with at-risk youths, women, or seniors, or aim to revitalize neighborhoods can apply for grants of up to $10,000. The first deadline is April 15. In addition, two annual scholarships of $2,500 will be awarded to a Massachusetts resident and college student studying towards a degree in the hospitality industry.