FRAMINGHAM — City officials expressed enthusiasm in working with U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark on a new program that would allow local merchants to access grant funding to enhance their businesses.
Framingham officials met with Clark Tuesday at the MetroWest Regional Transit Authority headquarters for a tour of the Blandin Avenue facility and a discussion with local stakeholders. The focus was to inform Clark of the need to secure federal funding to create a micro-enterprise fund for local businesses.
The idea was developed by Reyad Shah, executive director of Downtown Framingham Inc., a grant-funded program that works to promote and facilitate economic success in downtown Framingham. Shah was assisted by state Rep. Priscila Sousa, D-Framingham, who helped get Clark’s attention about federal funding to assist businesses.
“We are looking at how to fund small business — how can we create an additional micro-enterprise grant for businesses to be able to apply for?” Shah said. “We are looking at ways to continue to help businesses on a more granular scale. We are meeting here today to see how we can be supportive for funding.”
Shah, who was hired at DFI earlier this year, said that in his discussions with local businesses, he has heard consistent demand for certain improvements. Those include enhancing the storefront, improving signage and ESL lessons for employees.
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Sousa added that having a local grant program that businesses can tap would allow certain needs to be met, as opposed to existing programs — such as those run by the state — that may not be able to help all businesses.
“It will give businesses access to the resources and flexibility to determine what their needs are,” Sousa said. “For so long in downtown Framingham, it has been the outside determining what downtown needs. This gives the businesses the resources and the autonomy to advocate for their specific needs, because there is no one-size-fits-all for success in downtown.”
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Businesses would be able to submit an application process through DFI, stating specifically how they would spend grant funding and be subject to review by DFI. The city already has plans to contribute $60,000 from the Community Block Development Grant to kickstart a micro-loan funding program, with an eye on the federal government contributing more.
Clark, who helped secure more than $5 million in federal funding for Framingham-related projects in February, including $3 million to help fund the Chris Walsh Memorial Trail to Farm Pond, expressed enthusiasm for the potential of these investments to improve downtown, citing a similar type of fund that was created in Melrose decades ago.
“The ability to have small businesses in Melrose, when they were revitalizing (its downtown), for businesses to be able to purchase signs, taking all the signs from neon to wood and sort of over-lit or under-lit signs that just made them a different presentation,” Clark said. “That wasn’t in the budget for these small businesses and to be able to help them get those little storefront things that draw people in and meet the needs, that keeps the small business environment vibrant, but also helps them expand.”
Clark said that she views the federal government’s role as working on the biggest issues that impact local downtown — primarily transportation and affordable housing.
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“We have a key role to play in transportation, public transit and in housing,” she said. “Making sure that people can get to work and have housing that they can afford, so that we can retain our workforce here in Framingham and in the Commonwealth.”
Others attending Tuesday’s meeting included Framingham Mayor Charlie Sisitksy, City Council members Michael Cannon and John Stefanini and MetroWest Chamber of Commerce Deputy Director Towma Rastad.
Cannon, who chairs the council’s subcommittee on economic development, said that if a small business in Framingham fails, it is often due to a lack of capital. Small business can optimize small amounts of investment, but getting that investment can be challenging.
“Whether that is by buying inventory that can turn a profit to help you grow, or something that can just buy some time during difficult economic situations,” Cannon said. “It’s easier for a business in downtown Framingham to get approved for a $10 million development loan to build an apartment complex than it is for them to get $10,000 to help a small business. I think we can make that more equitable.”
Sousa said the goal is to secure money for the micro-enterprise fund by next year.
