Atlanta, with a $10 million federal grant in hand, is primed to invest nearly $23 million into Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to improve sidewalks and medians, install new lighting, synchronize traffic lights and create a small park.
Now the city just needs to attract some businesses along the seven-mile stretch that begins at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and ends at the western city limit. But Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has an idea.
Through Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development authority, grants ranging from $25,000 to $250,000 will be awarded to small businesses that are trying to expand along the corridor, or to new start-ups willing to make the long-suffering street their home.
“We have a moment…to take a small portion of this to invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs,” Reed said.
It’s the third Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant the city has received since 2010.
Less than a year away from the opening of a brand new football stadium at the foot of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, the federal money will be used to enhance the aesthetics of the seven-mile corridor.
But Reed and Invest Atlanta President Eloisa Klementich said that is hardly enough.
“What is great about the vision is that we are coming in and building streets and sidewalks,” Klementich said. “But we need to make sure we activate the street. We need people and people walking down the street.”
Klementich said Invest Atlanta has been busy determining potential business sites in the area; surveying approximately 50 businesses to better understand their needs; reaching out to local business associations and members of the community; and surveying residents about their spending.
It found that while there is $206 million in annual purchasing power there, some 20 percent of that is “leaking out,” because residents can’t find certain foods or general merchandise in their neighborhood.
Klementich does not have similar figures for other parts of the city.
With the creation of the Atlanta Streetcar, partially funded through a $47 million TIGER grant, the city pumped millions of dollars into the Auburn Avenue and Edgewood Avenue areas through small business loans and façade improvements to promote businesses along the 2.7-mile route.
Since 2013, Invest Atlanta has provided $2.7 million in small business assistance loans across the city. Of that, $1.3 million dollars has gone to businesses on Auburn and Edgewood avenues.
In 2014, funding was approved for the Eastside and Westside tax allocation districts (TADs) to create Downtown Façade Improvement Grants (DFIG) for small businesses. There has been $849,000 of approved funding for 12 DFIG projects clustered on Auburn and Edgewood Avenues.
In the Westside TAD, there has been $1.3 million of approved funding for nine projects in the area.
“This is just an exciting opportunity,” Klementich said. “When you look at the broader efforts, this fits into what we want to do to spur economic activity in a very important part of town.”
The application process for businesses seeking grants will begin on Oct. 3.
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