2020-00088 - Great Streets Program Eligible Areas

2020-00024 - Small Business Program Review

2017-01284 - Great Streets Program Areas Categorization

2017-00366 - Great Streets Program changes

On March 27, 2009, the City Council adopted target categories for commercial nodes, corridors, activity centers, and LRT station areas, as defined by The Minneapolis Plan for Sustainable Growth.

On April 27, 2007, the City Council created the Great Streets program to provide resources to revitalize and sustain neighborhood business districts.

This report includes several different, yet related, recommendations to update and modify the Great Streets program to align with current City policies and address the unique needs of businesses during this time of economic hardship and great uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The three sections of the report are as follows:

1. Changes to categorizing Great Streets eligible areas.
2. Changes to the Great Streets Business District Support guidelines.
3. Contract amendments for three 2019 Great Streets Business District Support contract scopes of services to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Great Streets Areas Categorization

The Great Streets Program began in 2007 to provide funding tools for commercial district revitalization. Great Streets consists of three primary tools: (1) Façade Improvement Matching Grants, (2) Business District Support Grants, and (3) Real Estate Redevelopment Gap Financing Loans. The City partners with community organizations to implement the program across the city. Great Streets resources are limited to the geographic areas in the City that are guided for commercial uses in the City’s comprehensive plan. With the effective date of Minneapolis 2040 on January 1, 2020, staff brought an updated Great Streets Eligible Areas map to Council to align with the new comp plan.

In addition to eligibility, the program also categorizes the eligible areas according to an areas’ relative economic health. To date, the program has used a range of indicators to categorize eligible areas as intervene, support, or monitor. With this report, staff recommends a different approach to eligible area categorization. Rather than collect and analyze data and then place areas in one of three categories, staff proposes using four existing designations to identify parcels in one of two categories: eligible and priority eligible.

Staff recommends that if an eligible parcel is within one of four designated areas listed below, it would qualify as a “priority eligible” parcel. All other eligible parcels would simply be “eligible.” Priority eligible parcels would be all those that lie within one of the following areas:

1. Cultural Districts (effective if, when, and as approved by the City Council)
2. Green Zones
3. Areas of Concentrated Poverty where 50% or more of residents are people of color (ACP50)
4. Promise Zone

This approach uses existing data analysis and aligns with existing City designations, rather than creating a unique approach for the Great Streets Program alone. It is simpler to communicate this rationale to community partners and the public alike and it matches the same areas used in recent COVID-19 forgivable loan eligibility criteria.

This map (pdf attached) shows all the eligible areas in blue, orange, or green. The parcels in orange are those within one of the four designated areas and are priority eligible. The blue parcels are simply eligible parcels. If approved, the updated categorization will go into effect for the Great Streets Business District Support, Façade Improvement Matching Grant, and Real Estate Redevelopment Gap Financing programs upon City Council approval.

The green parcels identify the properties that are not within a Green Zone, ACP50 area, or Promise Zone, but are within one of the proposed Cultural Districts published in the March 17, 2020 EDRS agenda packet. If Cultural Districts are approved by the City Council, parcels that are not within one of the other three priority designated areas will change from being an eligible parcel to a priority eligible parcel after City Council approval.

The match amounts and maximum grant amounts for existing, open Façade Improvement Matching Grant contracts will change as follows:

• Priority Eligible parcels will match current intervene amounts - 1:1 private to public match and $7,500 maximum grant amount.
• Eligible parcels will match current support amounts – 1:1 private to public match and $5,000 maximum grant amount.

2. Business District Support (BDS) Program Updates

The Great Streets Business District Support (BDS) Program provides grant funds to community-based, nonprofit organizations with the capacity and mission to perform business district revitalization and economic development work. BDS funds a wide range of activities and initiatives that enhance business district vitality, benefit existing businesses, diversify an area’s client base, or increase the diversity of goods and services - particularly in communities where there are existing racial, ethnic, and economic disparities.

Last year CPED conducted a review of its small business support programs, including Great Streets, and reported out results to the City Council. The review included neighborhood notification through extensive community outreach to program partners to gain insight into program strengths as well as opportunities for improvement. Out of the review, several recommendations emerged for possible changes to the Great Streets Business District Program. Administrative changes that staff will make to the 2020 BDS request for proposals include:

• Requesting more proposals that support work in Cultural Districts.
• Requesting more proposals that work to support Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC) businesses.
• Removing language that repeat activities are less compelling, simply by the nature that they are repeating.

Additional recommendations emerged from the review that require City Council authorization. Staff recommends the Council approve the following changes to the Great Streets Business District Support (BDS) Program:

• Allow proposals that serve significant “Priority eligible” areas to request a maximum grant of $75,000. Proposals that serve “Eligible” areas will be restricted to a maximum grant of $50,000.
• Change from a summer Contract Start Date to an Effective Date, after which grant activities may commence. The Effective Date will be the date of the final City Council Action approving the annual grants.
• Allow staff to improve alignment of BDS timing with community partner needs by allowing contract lengths of up to 18 months.

Finally, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, staff recommends the Council approve the following changes to the 2020 round of BDS grant awards. These recommended changes would not continue to all future rounds of BDS contracts, as those above would do.

• Request that proposers submit activities that positively and aggressively respond to small business needs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Add a 15% administrative fee to grant awardees in all contracts.

3. Business District Support Grant Contract Amendments

In 2019, the City awarded 18 Business District Support grant contracts. Three of those contracts have some unspent funds available for the organizations to redirect to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff recommends that City Council authorize the following changes to the contracts as described below.

The Northeast Minneapolis Chamber would redirect $25,000 of unspent funds to:

• Assist the NE Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA) with building its online capacity for a virtual Art-A-Whirl in May 2020 and assisting artists with onboarding their businesses to a virtual platform.
• Coordinate the “Too Local To Fail” campaign on behalf of local small businesses. The activities could include website maintenance, opening/closing mapping and communication, outreach, coalition building, resource development, resource sharing, social media support, or print advertising - “We’re Open”, “Too Local To Fail,” etc.

The West Broadway Business and Area Coalition would redirect $23,750 of unspent funds to:

• Hold virtual Northside Business luncheons in partnership with the Northside Economic Opportunity Network (NEON) and widely share recordings of critical topics to businesses in the time of COVID-19.
• Create media content and engagement to support businesses navigating the ever-changing environment of small business resources available in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with NEON and the Black Women's Wealth Alliance.

Seward Redesign would redirect $25,500 of unspent funds to:

• Pay for the administrative costs of conducting a COVID-safe district-wide business bingo game to encourage patronage of businesses that remain open during the stay-at-home order.
• Hire artists to create six to nine creative placemaking installations in storefront windows and outside of impacted businesses to improve street presence and create intrigue. Assist businesses with professional signage that directs captured viewers to their online platforms.
• Promote business spotlight posts in partnership with the Longfellow Business Association.