$16.2M in grant funding awarded to MD small businesses, revitalization projects

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The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development has awarded more than $16.2 million to support small businesses and local revitalization projects across the state, Gov. Wes Moore announced Tuesday.

“Community growth and business growth are inextricably linked,” Moore said in a news release. “When we invest in our small businesses, we invest in the neighborhoods they serve and the Marylanders they employ.”

The funds will be split through three different grants that will provide money to 121 businesses, local governments and place-based economic development organizations across every state jurisdiction.

One of the grants, the Business Boost Microgrant Program, will be distributed directly to small businesses to expand locations. The grant targeted home-based businesses that are establishing their first commercial locations.

Codetta Bake Shop, a Baltimore-based minority-owned business, received $50,000 from the grant. Sumayyah Bilal founded the bake shop in 2018 after taking a leap to quit her former job as a Howard County music teacher.

The grant will aid Bilal’s business in opening a full-service dine-in bakery that will feature a performance venue. The grant will also help Bilal expand her business to about a dozen part-time team members and a couple full-time staff.

“It’s really important to me to be able to pay people what they’re worth and even a little bit more than that, so that’s what this grant is for,” Bilal said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to attract some really good candidates.”

Another grant, dubbed Project Restore 2.0, awarded about $13 million in block grants to 55 organizations aiming to increase economic development. One recipient includes an economic development program that supports small businesses in Frostburg.

FrostbergFirst received a $240,000 grant to support two small businesses — a fashion boutique and personal training studio — in renovating vacant buildings, according to the program’s executive director Deirdre Robertson.

This is the third time FrostbergFirst is receiving funding from the department’s business grants, Robertson said. The previous grants helped fund a pop-up shop program that helped local businesses set up shops in a vacant space, Robertson said.

This year, Project Restore 2.0 gave grants to economic development companies, rather than to the small businesses directly. The move lets these companies become “matchmakers” between small businesses and vacant spaces, according to Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day.

The final grant, dubbed the Main Street Improvement Grant Program, will assist local governments of economic organizations in Main Street areas or state-designated areas for resilient business districts. This program awarded $966,000 to 47 recipients.

Grants dedicated to Main Street and sustainable areas can help certain communities become an “economic machine” and make Maryland into a more competitive marketplace for business, Day said.

Annapolis, Frederick and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor are all examples of places in Maryland that have potential to be “world-class destinations” for placemaking and urban design, Day said.

“Maryland has to beat those other states. We’ve got to beat our neighbors,” Day said. “We are going to make sure that we are building the great places that compete for talent in the global economy.”