Rockaway Business Alliance awarded $100,000 grant

BY MEGHAN SACKMAN

The Rockaway Business Alliance (RBA) has received a $100,000 grant from the city’s Department of Small Business Services.
The grant was given through a $1.7 million initiative called Avenue NYC that focuses on funding underserved communities and small businesses.
The $100,000 will be used to revitalize the Arverne and Edgemere shopping corridors.
“The goal of the funding is to support our partners’ capacity to develop more strategic, sustainable, needs-based programming and data-driven results for their commercial districts,” said SBS spokeswoman Catherine Tenuta.
With this money, the RBA will now be able to hire a full-time manager to overlook the NYC Avenue Initiative projects, conduct an in-depth district-needs assessment, and continue to carry out commercial revitalization for a few years.
The RBA is currently run by volunteers and Perch Advisors, who work about 20 hours a week. This grant will help keep the alliance running full time.
“Having someone on the ground in Rockaway will be a huge asset to the organization, and will mean that we can engage more with our member businesses and offer more hands-on support,” said Theo Boguszewski of Perch Advisors.
The grant period begins on July 1 when a full-time manager will be hired, then assessment and planning can begin.

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