City Council & Mayor's Office Announce $8 Million Small Manufacturing Investment Fund

If you own or operate a small food manufacturing business, please note the following press release sent by Speaker Quinn's office. It contains information pertaining to a new $8 million grant focused on increasing food manufacturing in NYC.

Gregory
*******
As part of our work with the Mayor's Office to help strengthen and grow the City's industrial sector, we are encouraging food manufacturers and other eligible businesses to apply to our $8 million NYC Council Small Manufacturing Investment Fund.

New York City was once home to thousands of manufacturing firms and hundreds of thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs. While we have lost many of these firms and jobs over the last fifty years, we now have the opportunity to capitalize on our resurgent small manufacturing sector and reestablish New York City as the center for 21st century manufacturing. Our Small Manufacturing Investment Fund will help to do this by providing capital for the reactivation and modernization of empty factories into spaces that are well-suited and affordable for small manufacturers.

This past week, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to renovate existing industrial space in the five boroughs for small manufacturing and related uses. Preference will be given to respondents that meet certain criteria, including those with not-for-profit status and property located in current Industrial Business Zones and Industrial Ombudsman Areas. Awards range from $1 million to $2 million, and the RFP will remain open on a quarterly rolling basis until all funds have been allocated. The first quarter deadline is Tuesday, March 13, 2012.

A copy of the RFP is available at www.nycedc.com/rfp. NYCEDC strongly encourages interested respondents to attend one of their information sessions, the first of which will be held on Tuesday, January 31, 2012, at 10 am at 110 William Street in Lower Manhattan. If you would like to attend this session, please RSVP to IndustrialSpaceModernizationRFP@nycedc.com no later than Friday, January 27th.

If you have any questions about the RFP or our Small Manufacturing Investment Fund, please feel free to contact Katie Codey in the NYC Council Policy Division at 212-788-9144. She can also be reached by email at kcodey@council.nyc.gov.