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 FY2010 Avenue NYC Annual Report.

In Fiscal Year 2013, SBS is funding nonprofit economic development organizations to carry out one or more initiatives under six project categories:

1. Business Attraction
2. Façade Improvement Management
3. Merchant Organizing
4. Placemaking
5. Capacity-Building Initiatives
6. Website Development

You can read more about the FY2013 Avenue NYC Program by downloading the Avenue NYC Proposal Guidelines.

The Avenue NYC Program application period is currently closed.  The deadline for submission was April 13, 2012.  

Information on the FY2013 Avenue NYC eligibility requirements is below:

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

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.  This 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).  

Note: for fiscal year 2013, the Avenue NYC will use 2000 census tract data to determine target areas' CDBG eligibility.  If the New York City Department of City Planning releases tract data from the 2010 census prior to the final funding determination for the fiscal year 2013 Avenue NYC program, any target areas that are newly CDBG-eligible under the revised tract data will be considered by SBS as meeting income eligibility criteria for fiscal year 2013.

If an organization's target area is CDBG-eligible under the 200 census tract data and no longer meets income eligibility criteria upon release of the 2010 data, SBS will still consider the affected target area as meeting CDBG eligibility requirements for the fiscal year 2013 Avenue NYC program.

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 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.

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