A reporter informed Jones of the announcement late Thursday afternoon at a groundbreaking ceremony for a memorial to Maggie L. Walker, a pioneering black banker, teacher and civil rights advocate.

“It would be a great help for us to have that grant in moving the ball forward, but we have an obligation to move forward with or without the grant,” Jones said.

Moments earlier, in response to a question about the removal of Confederate memorials, Jones said if he could tear down anything, “It would be the monument to poverty that is public housing in this city’s East End.”

Jones has advocated publicly for the ambitious plan to raze Creighton and replace it with mixed use, mixed-income development more than any other issue in this, his last four-year, term. He said he could not comment further Thursday until he had a chance to research the decision himself.

Finalists selected to move on to the next round are: the Boston Housing Authority and the city of Boston; the Housing Authority of the City of Camden and the city of Camden, N.J.; the Housing Authority of the City and County of Denver and the city and county of Denver; the Louisville Metro Housing Authority and the Louisville, Ky., Metro Government; and the city of St. Louis.