Twelve Uptown businesses get $5,000 micro-grants
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> A dozen businesses in the city’s Stockade District are set to receive $5,000 each from a funding pool supplied by the state.
In a press release, Mayor Steve Noble said that the businesses will be the recipients of the Stockade Business District MicroEnterprise Grant Program, a program funded by the Downtown Revitalization Initiative.
The Stockade Business District Micro-Enterprise Grant Program will provide up to $5,000 each to the following 12 small businesses to create, improve or expand their business: Cacao Lab, Chic’s Restaurant and Sports Bar, Chops Grille, First Capital Poke Bar, Headstone Gallery, Hill Valley Candles, Kingston Bread and Bar, Maria Vera Skincare, Rough Draft Bar and Books, Utility Bicycle Works, World’s End Comics, and Stockade Tavern.
“We are so pleased to announce
the award winners today, and to help these businesses in the Stockade District to make upgrades that will hopefully help to increase their overall economic performance,” Noble said in a statement on Thursday. “We know that our local businesses have struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic, and now with rising energy costs and inflation.”
“We hope that by helping these businesses with eligible improvement expenses, it will not only help the business itself, but the entire economic fabric of
the Uptown area,” Noble added.
“These DRI-funded micro-enterprise grants will help strengthen small businesses in one of the County’s most important business districts,” said Acting County Executive Johanna Contreras in a press release. “As the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic continue to put significant stress on our local economy, we need to do all we can to support the small businesses that create jobs, attract visitor spending and invest in ways that strengthen our communities’ quality of life.”
Eligible uses of funds include purchase of permanent machinery and equipment, interior renovations, soft costs and purchase and installation of signage.
Kingston was awarded the Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant in 2017. Funds for the Stockade Business District Small Grants Program come from the state Downtown Revitalization Initiative.
The current funding is Kingston’s first project undertaken in partnership with the Ulster County Office of Economic Development under a new Shared Services Agreement.
Additional Stockade Business District Small Grants program initiatives will be announced for the Business Façade Improvement Grant Program and the Residential Rehabilitation Improvement Program.
More information about the program can be found at: https://engagekingston.com/uptownbusinessgrants.