While many of the City’s neighborhood development programs focus on housing and social services, the Avenue NYC program targets the economic base of the neighborhood – the local commercial corridor.

Avenue NYC provides funding for non-profit economic development organizations (local development corporations, merchants associations, BIDs) in all five boroughs to carry out commercial revitalization activities in the districts they serve.

The goal of the program is to create the conditions under which businesses thrive and residents enjoy access to a vibrant mix of goods and services.

Learn more about the City’s investments in commercial districts in the FY2009 Avenue NYC Annual Report.

The New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) is no longer accepting applications for the Fiscal Year 2012 Avenue NYC program.  The deadline for submission was April 8, 2011 by 5:00pm.  

In Fiscal Year 2012, SBS will fund nonprofit economic development organizations to carry out one or more initiatives under six project categories:

1. Business Attraction
2. Façade Improvement Management Program
3. Merchant Organizing
4. Multi-Neighborhood Initiaitives
5. Placemaking
6. Website Development

You can download the Avenue NYC Proposal Guidelines, Applications, Budget Page and Instructions, and Personnel List below.  

Avenue NYC Proposal Guidelines

Information on the FY2012 Avenue NYC application process and eligibility requirements are below:

Am I Eligible to Apply?

What are the Evaluation Criteria?

How Do I Apply?

Am I Eligible to Apply?

Avenue NYC provides funding for non-profit economic development organizations (local development corporations, merchants associations and other organizations) throughout the five boroughs to carry out commercial revitalization activities in the districts they serve. 

Applicants must be:

• Nonprofit economic development organizations operating in any of the five boroughs of New York City; 
• Incorporated as a nonprofit in New York State; 
• Compliant with annual State and Federal filing requirements that are pertinent for their type of organization, including New York State Charities Bureau filings. 

Proposed commercial revitalization projects must:

• Operate within defined geographic boundaries; 
• Target commercial corridors as a whole and cannot provide individual business assistance, such as one-on-one business plan development assistance; 
• Consider the needs of small- and medium-sized businesses operating in the geographic area. 

Income Eligibility Criteria:

Organizations must target areas that are designated by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to be low- or moderate-income neighborhoods.  Designation prescribes that at least 51% of the residents in the census tracts included in the commercial area must be low- and moderate-income persons living in households with incomes below 80% of the median household income ($47,100 for a 4-person household in 2000).  To determine your census tract, visit the New York City Census FactFinder:  http://gis.nyc.gov/dcp/pa/address.jsp

To learn more about Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) eligibility and to view the City’s census tracts that are CDBG eligible, visit the Department of City Planning’s (DCP online Census Report: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/resource/censustractreport.shtml.

If your organization has not received funding through Avenue NYC in the past two fiscal years, please contact SBS at avenuenyc@sbs.nyc.gov to determine your district’s eligibility.

Back to Top

What are the Evaluation Criteria?

All organizations applying for the FY2012 Avenue NYC program were evaluated on three criteria and rated on the corresponding points scale:

1. Existing organizational capacity (40 points) 
2. Strength of Avenue NYC project proposal (50 points) 
3. Viability of proposed Avenue NYC budget (10 points) 

Details on each of these criteria are included in the Avenue NYC Proposal Guidelines.

Back to Top

How Do I Apply?

The New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) is no longer accepting applications for the Fiscal Year 2012 Avenue NYC program.  The deadline for submission was April 8, 2011 by 5:00pm.  

Back to Top