By Julie Shapiro
Hundreds of Downtown businesses struggling with street closures will get a lifeline beginning Thursday when the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. plans to expand its $5 million small business grant program.
The number of eligible blocks will jump from about 70 to 205, and businesses on those blocks will be eligible for up to double the amount they could have received before the change.
For O’Hara’s Restaurant and Pub, that means the difference between $11,000 and $22,000. O’Hara’s received an $11,000 grant from the L.M.D.C. last fall based on street closures outside the restaurant after the August 2007 fire at the Deutsche Bank building next door.
Now, rather than giving businesses like O’Hara’s $2.50 per square foot per month the street was closed due to public construction, the L.M.D.C. is upping the grant to $5 per square foot. The limit of $25,000 per business will remain the same. The L.M.D.C. is also expanding eligibility to include not just shops on blocks closed by construction, but also shops that are up to one block away from the closure. The changes take effect this week.
O’Hara’s and other businesses that have already received checks will automatically receive another check in the mail soon, if they deserve more money based on the new guidelines. All the new changes are retroactive to July 2007.
“That’s great, especially now,” said Michael Keane, owner of O’Hara’s, upon hearing the news. “It would take a little of the burden off of us, to have a couple [thousand dollars] in the bank so we’re not worried every week. It’s nice to have something for a rainy day.”
Ever since the fatal Deutsche Bank fire across the street, Keane’s restaurant has been covered in protective scaffolding, which he said makes it hard for customers to find the place. The recession has also hit him with a 10 to 15 percent drop in business since last year as the lunchtime crowd evaporated and fewer tourists visited the neighborhood, he said.
Keane plans to use the new grant money to replace a refrigerator and spruce up the restaurant with new chairs and stools.
The L.M.D.C. expanded its grant program this week after sustained pressure from Community Board 1, and especially from Ro Sheffe, chairperson of the board’s Financial District Committee. Sheffe was concerned that the L.M.D.C. had spent only about $1 million of the $5 million allocated to the program, and meanwhile shops that were not initially eligible were going out of business.
One of those was Klatch, a Maiden Ln. coffee shop that closed in April.
From the time the L.M.D.C. grant program started, Pam Chmiel, who owns Klatch, said she should have been eligible. Construction closed the block in front of her coffee shop for nearly two years, but it cleared up just before the L.M.D.C. program’s eligibility date of July 2007, which meant she could not apply. Klatch was still recovering from the construction when the recession slammed the business over the winter, and by spring Chmiel was evicted for being three months behind in her rent.
After the closure of Klatch, a popular neighborhood gathering place, Sheffe and elected officials pushed the L.M.D.C. to expand the grants to include more businesses. The L.M.D.C. complied, and based on the changes, Maiden Ln. businesses are now eligible because of the construction happening one block away on John St.
Chmiel was glad to hear the L.M.D.C. is expanding the program, though it is too late for Klatch and the nearby Mardi Gras Pizza, another business on the block that closed recently.
While Sheffe wishes the L.M.D.C. would give grants to Klatch and other closed businesses that would allow them to reopen, he said the changes to the program are just what Lower Manhattan needs.
“The L.M.D.C. was able to make major changes in 30 days, and that’s just amazing to me,” Sheffe said. “It’s wonderful to know an agency like this is so responsive.”
The grant program is slated to cover businesses below Canal St. through the end of 2010, assuming the $5 million lasts until then. If the money runs out, the L.M.D.C. could add another $2 million to the program, said Mike Murphy, L.M.D.C. spokesperson.
So far, about 75 businesses have received checks through the program or will receive them soon, Murphy said. The L.M.D.C. will do outreach to small businesses on all of the newly eligible blocks.
The changes to the grant program will not help businesses that have already received the maximum $25,000, like Stylz clothing store on Fulton St.
“We all need some kind of help,” said Dib Reda, who owns Stylz. “All this construction, it looks like it’s never going to finish.”
Next month will mark two years since water main work began on Fulton St., tearing up the asphalt and herding pedestrians onto narrowed sidewalks bounded with plywood. Reda put the initial $25,000 he received last year toward covering his rent. As for how much more money he would hope to get from the L.M.D.C., “There’s no answer for that,” he said.
Joel Kopel, manager of William Barthman Jewelers, also wishes the L.M.D.C. would expand the grant limit beyond $25,000. He expects to max out based on the L.M.D.C.’s changes to the program.
“The grants are a lifesaver,” Kopel said. “It’s like a finger in the dike, holding back the water from getting overwhelmed.”
Still, Kopel added, a $50,000 grant, perhaps spread over two years, would be even better.
“The $25,000 just goes up in smoke pretty quickly,” he said.
Kopel said it was not fair for smaller businesses with only two or three employees to get the same amount of money as larger stores like William Barthman.
Murphy, the L.M.D.C. spokesperson, said concerns of fairness are what led the L.M.D.C. to expand the program in the first place.
“Our goal is to give [the money] out to the maximum number of businesses,” Murphy said. “Everyone obviously wants more money, but we want to make sure it gets to everyone.”
More information about the L.M.D.C.’s Small Firm Assistance Program, including a list of eligible blocks, will be available at renewnyc.com starting next week.
Julie@DowntownExpress.com
