A Commerce Department agency has awarded the city of Los Angeles more than $2.1 million toward constructing and equipping the La Kretz Innovation Campus in downtown’s Clean Tech Corridor and Arts District.

The Economic Development Administration money comes from a program that supports creative approaches to “rapidly evolving” economic conditions. The Cleantech Corridor runs along a three-mile stretch of the L.A. River in an old industrial neighborhood that the city wants to turn into a center for alternative energy and clean transportation companies.

Scheduled to open next summer, the La Kretz campus will offer offices, conference rooms, an event space, research laboratories, a prototype manufacturing workshop, and classrooms in a renovated 60,000 square-foot building. The new federal money will help equip manufacturing workshop and research laboratories, provide building improvements, and pay to install a solar photovoltaic system to produce renewable energy for the campus.

“This EDA grant recognizes the importance of this project and will assist in the completion of the campus,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a statement late Tuesday. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the city’s former Community Redevelopment Agency collaborated in applying for the money.

The award was part of nearly $10 million in EDA economic development grants awarded to cities and institutions throughout the region. Among other recipients is the University of Southern California, which received $250,000 toward development of a technical assistance program to help small businesses, local governments and community groups improve economic development and disaster recovery.