Avenue NYC Grants Will Help Support Local Businesses On Myrtle Avenue And Fulton Street

Three local nonprofits are among the 48 recipients of Avenue NYC grants from the Department of Small Business Services (SBS): Central Fulton District Management Association (CFDMA/FAB Alliance), Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project Local Development Corporation (MABP/MARP), and the Pratt Area Community Council (PACC).

The grants are designated to support “economic development” and allow “local neighborhood organizations across all five boroughs to plan and execute targeted commercial revitalization projects that boost their commercial corridors, strengthen local businesses, and create jobs,” said Maria Torres-Springer, SBS commissioner.

CFDMA/FAB will use their grant funds “to activate Clinton Hill and Fort Greene public spaces and plazas by hosting “FAB Friday” promotional events to attract residents to Fulton Street.”

PACC’s grant will go towards supporting merchants along Flatbush Avenue.

MABP’s funds will be split between:

• façade improvement programs, which provides matching grants — usually approximately $1,000 — to property and business owners to improve facades, storefronts and retail spaces along Myrtle Avenue, as part of Myrtle Avenue BID’s Façade Improvement Grant Program;
• continued business retention and attraction efforts via marketing, providing educational and training workshops to merchants, and hosting events that draw customers to businesses located within the footprint of the Myrtle Avenue Plaza construction, between Hall and Emerson
• efforts to attract new businesses to Myrtle Avenue through “reducing the retail vacancy rate and improving the mix of goods and services offered on the avenue.  The grant award will also support a survey with consumers and residents near Myrtle Avenue to ask which types of businesses are most needed by current shoppers.”

Meredith Phillips Almeida, MABP executive director, explained that “currently in the façade improvement program, we are working with business and property owners between Grand and Classon Avenues to restore historic facades, create new retail spaces and improve existing commercial storefronts – including those at Bella Rosa Flowers and Tepango Restaurant.  Most of the storefront improvements will focus on increasing the transparency of storefronts, by adding larger or more windows at the ground level.”