Dib Reda has sold clothes in lower Manhattan for 18 years and never wants to leave, but times are tough for businesses like his that are disrupted by an unprecedented level of construction.
Small retail operations like Reda’s are eligible for a cash infusion from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which is doling out $5 million in HUD grants.
“It’s hard to make rent. It’s hard to make a living,” said Reda of Stylz clothing store on Fulton Street. “We need some kind of help to stay in lower Manhattan.”
The maximum grant of $25,000 for each business could make a difference for Reda, who said he is losing half his business thanks to the nonstop construction in the area.
“One byproduct of redevelopment is the imposition on street-level retail businesses,” said Avi Schick, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
The construction is causing street closures and disrupting the flow of customers to many businesses. Michael Keane, owner of O’Hara’s Restaurant on the corner of Cedar and Greenwich streets, was hit hard after the Deutsche Bank fire in August.
Patrons could still get to his pub but they had to ask police stationed there for access to the street.
“When you see two cops and a barricade, you’re going to keep walking,” he said. He lost a third of his business in the weeks following the fire, he said.
The Alliance for Downtown New York is helping raise awareness of the grant program and has contacted at least 80 businesses that may be eligible.
“The [Lower Manhattan Development Corporation] has the right idea, and our job is to help get the word out to small businesses,” said Elizabeth H. Berger, president of the Downtown Alliance.
The program has strict guidelines: Grants are only offered to small retailers on the ground floor that have faced street closures for 15 days in a 30-day period, and eligibility is retroactive to July of last year.
But for the businesses that are eligible, the money may help keep them here when construction is done and the vision for downtown is realized: “I want to be here when that happens,” Keane said.
-- Garett Sloane
How to get help: The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. offers grants to eligible businesses, but the guidlines are strict. For complete details, click here.