Business & Tech
Multiple Agencies Work on Revitalization
Together the agencies can leverage more money and expertise.
Collaboration between Huntington's Economic Development Corp. and the Community Development Agency combines town, county, state and federal money and takes advantage of strengths each bring to the table, says Doug Aloise, CDA director.
The CDA receives about $1 million a year in community development block grant funds through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The EDC can access town, county, state and federal funds and also leverage private money to aid economic development.
The two agencies worked together on the recently completed business incubator set to open in late January at 1264-1268 New York Ave. The building also houses the Huntington Enrichment Center, a new dental office and two apartments upstairs. The incubator is LEED certified and has solar panels.
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Aloise said he expects the business incubator will officially open toward the end of January when an executive director is hired to provide technical assistance and renovations are done. Interim executive director is Chris Erckert, chief of staff for James Kelly's JVK Group, a cost reduction and risk mitigation management company, Aloise says. Kelly served as chairman of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce from 2005-2009.
The incubator will provide technical assistance to from 6 to 8 businesses, helping them with problems they may encounter as they become full-scale operations, from dealing with accounting software to marketing and minor legal issues. Tenants will have individual small offices, phones, support through a receptionist, access to a copy center and mail service in exchange for monthly rent, which has not yet been set. Fledgling businesses can meet clients in the incubator's conference room even if they're not quite ready to rent space in the incubator, Aloise says. "Most important, they could use the brainpower of the incubator."
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The businesses will be picked by a committee based on business plans they've been asked to submit. "We really don't have an incubator like this on Long Island, for small businesses that are making the transition from the garage to a larger format," Aloise says. He met the interested applicants through a series of six workshops at the Big H shopping center run by the NYS Small Business Development Center at Farmingdale State College, the town and Citibank.
Nationally, incubator tenants usually stay two or three years, on average, he says. He expects the Huntington incubator to provide three levels of assistance: help to tenants, heavy technical assistance to businesses who are forming plans, and assistance to existing businesses that need occasional help. "We see it as part of the revitalization of Huntington Station, increasing the amount of private-sector jobs."
The incubator section of the building was renovated with$666,485 in funds, and is LEED certified, Aloise says.
Overall, the town has spent $1.36 million acquiring and renovating the corner property, including $100,000 for purchase and $600,000 to rehab the Enrichment Center.
"It's an anchor building for the community. We wanted to make it look nice, and it has spread," Aloise says, pointing to the new 7-Eleven store and the farmers market across the street, along with landscaping in front of the library. With rents coming from two apartments in the building as well as the dental office, he says the town also is able to apply money toward the Don Pius scholarship, now in its third year.
The CDA also does home rehabilitation for low- to moderate-income families, with $789,994 budgeted in 2010-11 and $750,032 for 2011-12. Last year 32 homeowners were helped to bring their houses up to meet codes, with work ranging from a new boiler to handicapped-accessible bathrooms and new roofs, says Bruce Grant, assistant director. "It lets them live in their house," Grant says.
About 95 percent of those helped through the program are senior citizens. The CDA also helps fund a program run through Family Service League called Home Share, which matches seniors with younger people who need housing, and it funds counseling for fair housing and a fair housing poster contest in elementary schools.
Aloise says the CDA also will be working this year on a joint venture with the EDC and the Huntington Station Business Improvement District on façade improvements along Depot Road. Another project leverages $1.56 million from the Empire State Development Corp. for construction of 16 units of affordable housing at Columbia Street, where three houses were knocked down this fall, along with county money for infrastructure improvements. He expects construction to start toward the end of 2011 of eight owner-occupied units, each with an accessory apartment.