The Small Business Building Improvement Grant Program (BIG) is designed to support Albany’s aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses as well as not-for-profits in the childcare, arts/cultural, tourism, and hospitality industries as they recover from the ongoing and evolving challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact.
Donor Name: Capitalize Albany Corporation
City: Albany
Deadline: 02/10/2023
Size of the Grant: $5,000 to $25,000
Details:
With funding from the City of Albany, Capitalize Albany Corporation will make available flexible capital grants to facilitate investments designed to achieve the growth and sustainability of Albany’s small businesses, while creating an environment that fosters generational wealth and enhanced access to capital. These investments will not only support businesses and their owners but neighborhoods as well. Because many small businesses cannot fund these investments alone, Capitalize Albany Corporation has designed the BIG Program with support from the City of Albany in accordance with the objectives determined by the City’s COVID-19 Task Force.
The BIG Program will make available recoverable, reimbursable grants to eligible applicants with qualified projects to assist with paying some of the costs associated with capital investments, including but not limited to renovating or preparing commercial space for an eligible use and/or acquisition of machinery and equipment.
Program Goals
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the City’s COVID-19 Task Force recommended strategies to support the sustainability and success of Albany’s small businesses. Capitalize Albany Corporation has developed the following program goals for the BIG Program, pursuant to these strategies:
- To offer flexible and accessible funding for eligible small businesses and not-for-profits
- To help diversify small business ownership by expanding access to capital for aspiring and existing entrepreneurs
- To support small businesses in increasing efficiency, capacity, sustainability and resiliency through strategic investments in their operations
- To revitalize and improve the quality of place throughout the City by activating vacant properties and supporting opportunities for neighborhood investment
- To support efforts to enhance existing and attract new businesses that provide a need/desired service throughout the City’s neighborhoods in order to increase foot traffic and to create a vibrant commercial core
- To support efforts to strengthen the retail mix throughout the City via variety and complementary stores
- To improve the image of the City as a destination for the community, visitors and tourists
- To stimulate private retail investment throughout the City through property improvement, business development, retention and expansion
- To encourage the creation of low barrier to entry jobs for City residents, as well as others in the region
- To create induced and indirect economic spinoff including sales tax generation
- To leverage public and private investment in the City and encourage more to occur
Priorities
The City of Albany strives to achieve a diverse mix of small businesses and organizations that equitably support and reflect the community. To this end, the following business characteristics will be considered of strategic value during the review process:
- Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) including minority, women and veteran-owned businesses, including socially disadvantaged business owners as defined by the Small Business Administration’s Minority Small Business and Capital Ownership Development Program [the “8(a) Business Development (BD) Program”].
- Businesses located within Qualified Census Tracts (QCTs)
- Businesses located within a storefront
- Businesses that provide a desired or complementary service, such as:
- Childcare facilities, particularly those established in a childcare desert
- Grocery/fresh-food outlets, particularly those established in a food desert
- Stores applying for funding under this program must agree to document and certify that a significant inventory of fresh produce will be offered for sale for the term of the grant.
- Hospitality-oriented businesses, including full-service restaurants
- New or expanding retailers offering the following goods/services:
- Soft Goods (Apparel/Shoes/Home Furnishings/Books/Gifts/Novelties)
- Health & wellness stores and pharmacies
- Salons/Spas/Barbershop
- Businesses that manufacture a physical product for sale
- Applicants where the owner resides in the City of Albany, especially if their residence is within a QCT
- Businesses moving into a space that has been vacant for at least a year
Program Tracks
- Track #1 – Microgrants of $1,500 to $4,999
- Track #2 – Grants of $5,000 to $25,000
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for this program, the application must be on behalf of an eligible existing or new small business or eligible not-for-profit organization as defined below.
Eligible small businesses shall be defined as enterprise with fifty (50) or less full-time equivalent employees. Furthermore, the business must not be identified in the list of ineligible businesses contained in these program guidelines
Eligible not-for-profit organizations must operate in the childcare, arts/cultural, tourism or hospitality industries, have no more than twenty-five (25) full-time equivalent employees and a publicly-accessible and street-facing entrance.
Furthermore, eligible applicants must meet all of the following criteria:
- The applicant must be currently operating/committed to operate a business within the City of Albany.
- The applicant must be a legal entity and possess any required registration or licensure, as required to operate within the City of Albany, Albany County and New York State.
- The applicant must certify that they are current on all federal, state, local, business, property, sales, and payroll taxes prior to award.
- The applicant must certify to availability of the funds necessary to complete the project at the time of application
- If the applicant is currently operating in the City of Albany and plans to relocate existing operations, the applicant must show evidence of expansion or inability to continue to operate at the existing location. Applicants seeking to relocate may be ineligible for program assistance subject to the discretion of Capitalize Albany Corporation staff.
- Track #2 applicants only must commit to remain in the location and/or maintain the investment(s) for a period of 2 years.
Applicants requesting funds for capital improvements (i.e., interior or exterior fixed improvements) are subject to certifying and/or providing documentation (as required by Capitalize Albany) that the property to be improved meets the following criteria to be considered eligible:
- The building must be a current or future location for the applicant’s operations.
- The building must be used in whole or in part for eligible commercial or not-for-profit purposes.
- Land use must be in conformity with applicable zoning regulations. Non-conforming land uses, sites, and structures are eligible for grant funds only if the non-conformities are brought into compliance through the grant award.
- Buildings with existing code violations or deficiencies related to the business and the proposed project must include their remedy as part of the proposed improvements.
- The applicant must be either the property owner, a property owner that is jointly a tenant, or a commercial tenant that possesses a legally valid, binding, and current lease that will not expire prior to the anticipated completion of the project and/or monitoring/compliance term at the discretion of Capitalize Albany Corporation Staff.
- If the applicant is a lessee, the applicant must have written consent from the property owner giving permission to conduct the improvements and expressing the terms of the lease including, at minimum, its start date and duration.
For more information, visit Small Business Building Improvement Grant.
