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Thinking Big About Small Business
New Haven announces trio of small-biz initiatives
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Business New Haven
6/14/99
By: BNH
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New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. June 7 took the wraps off two new initiatives designed to aid small businesses in the Elm City.
The city's Small Business Initiative pools existing loan resources to create a $10 million fund specifically for small businesses. DeStefano said the loan pool would be augmented in part with additional tax revenues generated from the proposed retail mall at Long Wharf. The initiative is designed as well to leverage an additional $7 million in private bank assistance to small businesses.
The centerpiece of the Small Business Initiative is a $21.6 million facade improvement program and an $8.2 million public improvements initiative for downtown and neighborhood so-called commercial revitalization districts.
Also, the New Haven Regional Contractors Alliance is a partnership among the city, Yale University, the Association of General Contractors, developers of the Long Wharf mall (including the New Haven-based Fusco Corp.) and others. The alliance is designed to offer training and assistance to small contractors in order to increase their ability to participate in future construction projects in the city.
DeStefano also announced that he would submit a “small-business opportunity ordinance” to the Board of Aldermen that would require firms accepting city construction work to demonstrate good-faith efforts to recruit small business, for instance as subcontractors.
Through both the Small Business Initiative and the contractors alliance, the mayor said the city would soon launch a series of technical assistance initiatives designed to enhance the ability of small firms to participate in major projects citywide. DeStefano noted that some $3.5 billion in construction projects are scheduled to begin in the city in the near future, many of them at Yale.
“Most of the new jobs created in America are created by small business,” noted DeStefano. “We are committed to giving New Haven's small businesses the tools they need for success, and we are going to make certain that they have access to the loans, technical assistance and partnerships they will need to be successful.
“On top of that, we're willing to put our money where our mouth is by adopting an ordinance that encourages large contractors to make use of smaller firms [which] employ local workers,” DeStefano said.
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