Small Boston-based businesses met with local financial advocacy groups to establish partnerships with potential investors during a Feb. 11 virtual event.
The meeting was hosted by the Boston Planning & Development Agency, the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts — an organization that works to advance the economic well-being of Black Bostonians — and the Boston Local Development Corporation, which provides small business loans to assist Boston residents.
Barry Reaves, director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the BPDA, said the event aimed to increase the agency’s “outreach and connectivity.”
“We wanted to continue to demystify that process [of working with BPDA] to allow greater opportunities to acquire contracts with the agency,” Reaves said.
The event highlighted opportunities for businesses to bid on BPDA contracts for recurring services on their properties — such as pest control or snow removal — and for larger long-term construction and design projects in BPDA properties across Boston.
The BPDA owns 2.4 million square feet of developable land which will offer opportunities for businesses to enter a long-term lease or to develop properties with the BPDA.
Bill Nickerson, general manager of the Boston Local Development Corporation, said the BLDC makes loans exclusively to Boston businesses, so as to “make up for a lack of equity” that helps businesses secure other deals.
“Especially when you’re working in communities of color and inner city businesses in general, they tend to have to bootstrap when they start up,” Nickerson said. “They don’t have the kind of capital that a lot of other businesses have signing up.”
Nickerson added that communities of color have a “history of disinvestment” due to lack of access to generational wealth.
“I’m just understanding that we need to increase the depth and breadth of the participation of the minority community with our agency,” Nickerson said.
Reaves spoke about the goals of the BPDA.
“For Black-owned businesses and the agency, we want to see [them] grow their capacity, and we also want to see them land contract opportunities with the agency,” Reaves said.
Marvelous Cuts Barber Lounge, one of the businesses featured during the event, received funds from the BLDC to build a new shop in downtown Boston.
Lex Andre Daluz, owner and operator of Marvelous Cuts, said the expansion was a “daunting task” to get approved, but BLDC helped him with paperwork and planning.
Daluz added the organization has “great human resources” and his shop would not exist without help from the BLDC.
“We [were] hoping to hit the ground running after we opened and COVID happened,” Daluz said. “We were in [a] place where we had some funds left over from the BLDC so we were able to use that to pay rent for several months. So it definitely made us stay grounded.”
Nickerson said the event went “very well” and the BPDA has already begun to follow up with attendees.
The BPDA plans to hold another community engagement event in June with other organizations such as the Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
“Outreach and letting people know we exist is always the biggest problem,” Nickerson said. “So anytime we can do something like [Friday’s] event, it’s a real benefit for increasing awareness about our program.”
Other city should follow this model of business
This was an excellent event, hosted by two superb organizations. It shows great foresight to have what I call the three legged approach to success, which is to involve the private sector, the public sector and the non profit sector to connect with each other to provide and receive much needed financial resources. Congratulations Boston for getting it right.