Jamaica Event Helps Aspiring Business Owners Launch Their Dream

JAMAICA, NY – Would-be entrepreneurs eager to launch a business in Jamaica but daunted by the startup costs can learn about financing options available to them at an upcoming economic development summit.

The South East Queens Economic Development Summit, slated for Dec. 5, will bring together elected officials, community stakeholders and residents to brainstorm plans for economic growth in and around downtown Jamaica - including how New Markets Tax Credits can help finance minority and women-owned business ventures.

Community Board 12 - which encompasses Jamaica, Hollis, St. Albans, South Ozone Park and Springfield Gardens - outlined plans for the summit at York College in its the November economic development committee meeting.

Glenn Greenidge, the community board's economic development committee chairperson, said the summit this year would focus on New Markets Tax Credits as an alternative financing resource. The program uses federal tax credits as an incentive for investors to fund businesses and development projects to revitalize low-income communities.

"Basically what a New Markets Tax Credit makes available is a giveback equity," Greenidge said. "Investors put in money to finance a project but don't look to get that money back, they look to get it back in tax credits. The entity that took out the NMTC gets a giveback."

The NMTC program is run by the U.S. Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which is slated to award $7 billion to community development entities across the country from 2017-18. The upcoming economic development summit will explain how to members of NYC's Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise program in Southeast Queens can access those funds to jumpstart their businesses ventures.

Also slated for the economic development summit are panel discussions focusing on MWBE resources, successful MWBE working models and MWBE support in acquiring contracts, according to the CB12 Economic Committee. The summit is slated to run from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Dec. 5.

Lead photo via Shutterstock.