YOUNGSTOWN — The city is moving forward with two economic development initiatives — a $200,000 fund to help small businesses and hiring a firm for $50,000 to create a strategic plan to help Youngstown’s economy.

City council recently approved legislation to authorize the board of control to create the $200,000 Small Business Boost Program, that will be administered by Intentional Development Group Inc. — run by Carmella Williams, the city’s minority outreach coordinator — and to pay $50,000 to the Montrose Group LLC of Columbus for the economic development action plan.

Regarding the action plan, Nikki Posterli, director of the city’s community planning and economic development department, said: “The end goal is actionable steps that we can take to make sure we’re marketing the city right, that we’re offering the right tools and incentives and that we’re aligning ourselves with the right plan.”

Montrose’s plan states it will assess and analyze existing data, focus on business retention and attraction, workforce assessment, site and building inventory analysis and downtown office reuse strategy.

The firm will meet with the city’s economic development partners, including the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, Western Reserve Port Authority, Economic Action Group and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, Posterli said.

Montrose will start as soon as the board of control signs a contract with the plan taking six months to complete.

“The city has not had a strategic plan in economic development,” Posterli said.

She added: “We need help with a workforce development plan to make sure the businesses we’re attracting can be retained and to make sure that we are in the regional pool in what’s going on with economic development.”

The city needs its own economic plan rather than looking at what other cities do, Posterli said.

“What we’re saying is: can you take what we’re doing, look at it, give us some analysis and see if we’re on the right track?” Posterli said. “They’re taking some of the groundwork we’re doing and making it into a whole plan for us.”

In its proposal, Montrose said it would provide a workflow of how an economic development project finds and learns about market site, identify types of industries that should be targeted by the city, create a small and disadvantaged business development strategy, provide a roadmap for workforce development outreach marketing and services and recommend specific steps tied to the reuse of underutilized downtown office space and buildings.

SMALL BUSINESS GRANTS

The Small Business Boost Project will have a $200,000 pot of grant money with each eligible company able to get up to $10,000 each.

The city received federal COVID-19 funds to help small businesses, but the provisions from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development were “very restrictive,” Posterli said.

“We wished we could have awarded some businesses more funds than we were able to,” she said. “In one example, a business applied for $80,000. Because of all the restrictions with HUD we were able to give them only $300. So this gives us more flexibility because it takes those restrictions out.”

The money administered through HUD required companies to be in business for a specific number of years before the pandemic and use the funds for personal protection equipment, which is no longer relevant, Posterli said.

The new program “allows them to use the money to meet payroll obligations, mortgage and rent obligations and with equipment and marketing assistance,” Posterli said. “We need to give them support.”

Intentional Development Group will receive $10,000 from the city to administer the program.

To be eligible, a business must be for-profit and privately-owned. It cannot be a bank, credit union, adult entertainment establishment or franchised business not locally owned and independently operated, according to the program’s guidelines.

Have an interesting story? Contact David Skolnick by email at dskolnick@vindy.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @dskolnick.