On May 2, the City of Minneapolis awarded nearly $500,000 in grants to assist small businesses along its commercial corridors through the city's
Great Streets Neighborhood Business District Program.
The city funded 15 proposals ranging from $5,000 to $50,000, for a total of $499,873. The funds are passed through community development organizations to the businesses.
This is the fourth year the grants have been awarded. So far, more than 250 new and existing businesses have received technical assistance in marketing, bookkeeping, product mix, licensing and code requirements, and business planning, states a press release announcing the grants. The awarded organizations also use the funds for such things as business development and recruitment, public safety initiatives, real estate/market assessment, construction mitigation, and more.
The
list of awarded organizations includes nonprofits across the city.
The Neighborhood Business District grants program is part of the city's $4 million Great Streets initiative, according to Kelly Hoffman, senior project coordinator for the City of Minneapolis.
The greater initiative also includes fa�ade improvement matching grants, real estate development gap financing loans, and marketing of the city's finance programs to help small businesses, she says.
As the program has progressed, the city is measuring progress and collecting success stories, Hoffman says, and the program allows organizations in the city's 118 commercial nodes and corridors to learn from one another.
"One of the benefits of the program being around for a fourth year is we're starting to figure out best practices and different ways for organizations to further best strategies," she says.
Source: Kelly Hoffman, City of Minneapolis.
Writer: Jeremy Stratton