The Downtown Development Corp. intends to raise an unspecified amount of money it can quickly deploy for projects like planting trees, lending money for small-merchant capital projects, and providing bridge loans to retailers and others who want to open businesses downtown.
Its chief organizer and board chair, David Stiepleman, said in an interview that speed is of the essence in securing and deploying the money needed to get the project off the ground. While future efforts will require new legislation and other measures, “this is the ‘Let’s move now’ initiative,” he said.
The development group hopes to research future measures like tax breaks and other incentives. He said the group plans to stand up as soon as possible a fund that could be used, for example, to secure heaters for outdoor seating at restaurants or loans for downtown office or retail tenants that might not otherwise have the creditworthiness to qualify.
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