BID Funding to Aid National Landing Small Business Community
By Keith Loria April 26, 2020 11:25 am
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The Crystal City Business Improvement District (BID) is providing $100,000 to the Arlington Small Business Emergency GRANT (Giving Resiliency Assets Near Term) Program, which offers immediate financial help to small businesses in the area hurt by the coronavirus crisis.
The program will provide grants of up to $10,000 to businesses and nonprofits operating in National Landing, which encompasses the interconnected portions of Crystal City, Pentagon City and Potomac Yard, according to a prepared statement.
“National Landing’s small business community is a key component of what makes the area vibrant and attractive,” Tracy Sayegh Gabriel, president and executive director of the Crystal City BID, told Commercial Observer. “In addition to serving local residents and workers, these businesses create local jobs and their continued presence is essential to the future of our downtown. The GRANT Program will provide the near-term financial assistance that will enable these businesses to reopen or continue operations despite the delays and limitations they are experiencing with federal relief funding.”
Businesses applying for the program must have less than 50 employees and must prove revenue losses of 35 percent or more as a result of the pandemic, per the statement.
According to the parameters of the GRANT Program, applications will be evaluated through a competitive process involving a weighted scoring system that will consider factors such as number of years the business has operated in Arlington, the number of jobs that will be supported by the funds, whether the business is women- and/or minority-owned, and demonstrated need and industry.
All applications will be reviewed by a collection of leaders from the Economic Development Commission, Industrial Development Authority and independent financial reviewers.
“Our community is resilient, and our residents, businesses, and elected officials are all doing their part to help those in need during this crisis,” Gabriel said. “The BID is in constant contact with our local businesses sharing relevant resources and information to support their evolving needs. We’ve launched several initiatives of our own, including informational webinars and BID-sponsored virtual programming. We also continue to identify ways that our community can support those local businesses that have remained open.”
Update: This story originally misattributed source material. This has been corrected. We apologize for the error.
