BROOKLYN — Fledgling real estate developers who are long on vision but short on capital can now get a leg up from a new $10 million city fund, the New York City Economic Development Corporation announced.
NYC EDC will dole out the money in low-interest loans to "emerging" developers looking to build small commercial or mixed-use projects.
The new loan fund is aimed at helping women and minority-owned developers in particular, because those firms "often face major hurdles in accessing affordable financing," EDC officials said.
"The Emerging Developer Loan Fund will help level the playing field for New York City’s burgeoning development firms by addressing what has historically been a real barrier to entry for these types of firms — affordable financing," NYCEDC president Maria Torres-Springer said.
Though the program is meant to support women and minority-owned firms, developers don't have to fit into those categories to apply. NYCEDC defines an "emerging" developer as any firm that's new to the business and has annual revenue under $10 million.
NYCEDC is partnering with Basis Management Group, a minority and woman-owned commercial real estate finance firm, to launch the fund. Basis will vet applicants to the fund and EDC will make the final decision on which projects are funded.
The loans will cover land acquisition and pre-development costs such as security deposits or environmental assessments.
NYCEDC prefers to fund commercial or mixed-use projects with the loans, rather than the projects that are 100 percent residential, a spokeswoman said.
The grant is part of a set of initiatives EDC unveiled back in March to support minority and woman-owned companies. NYCEDC announced the Emerging Developer Loan fund then and started accepting applications to the fund last week.
