City to offer low-interest loans to up-and-coming developers

Fund will dole out $100K to $2.5M loans for firms with less than $10M in revenue

Maria Torres-Springer
Maria Torres-Springer

So you’re a small-time developer seeking a toehold in the high-stakes real estate industry? No problem. The city’s got your back.

In an effort to give smaller developers a leg up, the city launched a low-interest loan program to help developers buy sites and develop residential, commercial and industrial projects, Crain’s reported. The Emerging Developer Loan Fund will be run by the city and a subsidiary of Manhattan-based lender Basis Investment Group.

At the outset, the city’s Economic Development Corp. has committed $10 million to the fund, which will give out loans between $100,000 to $2.5 million.

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Developers with annual revenue under $10 million are eligible for the loans. Basis will also help companies apply for construction loans from other lenders.

In particular, the fund is targeting minority- and women-owned businesses, and in particular, projects costing less than $30 million.

The goal is to “help level the playing field for New York City’s burgeoning development firms by addressing what has historically been a real barrier to entry for these types of firms — affordable financing,” EDC president Maria Torres-Springer said. [Crain’s]E.B. Solomont

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