$3 Million Awarded to Seminole Community on The Brighton Reservation to Revitalize Trading Post

The Brighton Trading Post in 2012. The Seminole Tribune

The Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarded a $3.3 million grant to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Inc., Hollywood, Florida, to support business expansion plans by renovating the Brighton Reservation Trading Post.

The Seminole Tribune states that the The Brighton Trading Post on the Brighton Reservation has been a staple of the Seminole community since it opened in the 1960s. The Trading Post’s last major renovation was in 2012.

“This EDA investment will create economic growth and opportunity for the Brighton Seminole community through the expansion of existing business operations,”

Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

This project will support the existing 2,110 square foot Trading Post store being converted into offices, a laundry facility and a recreation room. It will also support building a new 4,700 square foot Trading Post convenience store. It will make utilities infrastructure improvements needed to expand businesses critical to meeting increasing demands for fuel, provisions and serves on the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation. This EDA grant will be matched with $3.1 million in local funds.

The Trading Post will also feature 10 double-sided fuel dispensers, a 6,000 square foot fuel canopy, three underground fuel tanks with 50,000-gallon capacities, as well as electric vehicle charging stations, new storm drainage and new utility, water and sewer lines.

Brighton RV Resort areal shot

This project is funded under EDA’s American Rescue Plan Indigenous Communities program, which allocates $100 million in funding specifically to support the needs of tribal governments and Indigenous communities to develop and execute economic development projects they need to recover from the pandemic and build economies for the future.