The city of Warren Redevelopment Authority is moving ahead on a project that could bring additional funds to a downtown hotel proposal and future RDA investments.

Randy Rossey, director of codes and planning for the city, explained the scope of the grant application to the RDA during a Tuesday meeting.

He said the application would see $500,000 in Keystone Communities development grant funding that would be loaned to Dewboi Properties, the firm developing several Liberty Street buildings, including the former Brick House.

As the funds are repaid to the RDA, Rossey said, the RDA can turn around and use those proceeds on different projects in the city.

He told the RDA that the mechanism used to loan the funds would be “no different than what we’ve already used.”

The RDA recently loaned $250,000 to Dewboi Properties for the same project.

The RDA agreed to move ahead on this development grant as well as a planning grant aimed at developing a blight plan for the city.

Rossey said, if successful, that a consultant would be brought in “more or less to provide us with a study on blighted property in the city” with “recommendations on how to alleviate that” and “provide us with revenue streams on how to do that.”

He said the city is “woefully understaffed” to undertake such an initiative on its own.

“Other communities that have done this,” he said, “have a much larger area of blight than we do. We have pockets,” explaining that the plan would rank “in terms of where the property stands and what needs to be addressed.”

“Considering (our) lack of staffing,” RDA member Gary Sawtelle said, “having something like this to help us out would be a good thing.”

“There’s a lot more end game with this grant process than just having someone come in and say ‘that house is blighted,” Scott Taylor, zoning and ordinance enforcement official, said. “We know that.”

The grant, he said, is “opening the door for how to remedy the situation in the end game.”