Bronx Create Hub is seen on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023.
Photo ET Rodriguez
Over the last four years, Bronxites have stood idly by and watched as the local economy has repeatedly plummeted, climbed up and dipped again. But on Thursday, elected officials and borough leaders said a new loan program with forgotten money will get Bronx businesses on the up and up.
Rob Walsh, the president of the Bronx Economic Development Corporation (BxEDC), announced Thursday morning the launch of the Bronx-specific $10 million business loan program — a sum of cash officials said he dug up in leftover “empowerment zone” money dating back almost 30 years. The New York Empowerment Zone is one of nine established by then-President Bill Clinton’s administration in 1994 to provide investment funds and tax incentives for businesses to open, expand and hire local residents.
“When Rob (Walsh) told me this $10 million had been left on the table since 1994 I could not believe it,” Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said during the announcement.
According to THE CITY, Walsh actually discovered a total of $20 million in unspent empowerment zone dollars after assuming the BxEDC president’s post earlier this summer. He worked with the borough president’s office, the Business Initiative Corporation of New York (BICNY) and Bronx politicians to get half the total amount approved by the New York Empowerment Zone Corporation for the new program.
The $10 million in funding for the Bronx will be provided through the federal Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Community Advantage Loan Program.
“It couldn’t come at a more important time,” Walsh said.
The COVID-19 pandemic was particularly taxing on Bronxites. According to a 2021 report by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the Bronx lost 9,600 leisure and hospitality jobs from the start of the pandemic through the summer of 2020, which represented a 45.6% drop. Overall unemployment during…
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