Mayor Zohran Mamdani is allocating a large chunk of an $8.4 million small-business grant package toward strengthening merchant groups and business improvement districts, and, in some neighborhoods, laying the groundwork for new merchant organizations along New York City’s commercial corridors.
The grants announced Monday by Mamdani and the Department of Small Business Services will also pay for street cleaning, lighting, public art, wayfinding, marketing and other neighborhood improvements across the five boroughs.
City Hall estimates the funding will support community-based organizations serving more than 20,000 small businesses. Mamdani said the grants are meant to complement the administration’s push to reduce regulatory burdens by making commercial corridors more attractive to customers.
“Our administration knows it’s not enough to make it easier to open a small business, you have to make it easier to visit one too,” Mamdani said.
Brooklyn will receive the largest borough share, with about $2.77 million across 32 grants. The Bronx will receive $1.55 million, Manhattan about $1.53 million, Queens about $1.51 million and Staten Island $550,000. Another $500,000 will go to seven organizations providing services citywide.
A recipient-by-recipient breakdown provided by SBS shows some of the money going toward merchant organizing, while other awards are designated for BID development.
In Greenpoint, the Brooklyn Alliance, the economic development arm of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, will receive $100,000 for merchant organizing.
Randy Peers, co-chair of the Five Borough Jobs Campaign, said the Brooklyn Alliance will use the money to organize merchants in Greenpoint, which currently has neither a BID nor a merchant association.
Peers told amNewYork that grants such as these can benefit entire commercial strips because relatively small awards can fund improvements or organizing that reaches many businesses rather than one storefront at a time.
‘Off to a good start’
Other grants announced Monday are aimed at physical improvements. Hometown Security Laboratories will receive $100,000 for lighting in Hunts Point, Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition will receive $100,000 for lighting in Kingsbridge Heights and The W.O.W. Project will receive $100,000 for lighting in Chinatown.
Public-realm and neighborhood-navigation grants will also support projects in West Harlem, Downtown Jamaica, Red Hook and around Chinatown and the Civic Center.
The largest individual award is $426,359 to Union Settlement for work in East Harlem. Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership in Fort Greene and Red Hook Business Alliance will each receive $200,000, while La Colmena and West Brighton Community Local Development Corporation will each receive $150,000.
Seven organizations will split $500,000 in citywide organizational-development grants, including Art on the Ave, Center for Urban Pedagogy, Coro Leadership Center and Project for Public Spaces.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announces his “OPEN for Small Business” package of more than 50 regulatory reforms in the Bronx on July 20, 2026.Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
Peers said merchant organizations can provide infrastructure that lasts beyond the immediate grant period. Pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said corridors that fared best were those that already had a BID or merchant association on the ground.
The grants are the latest piece of Mamdani’s broader small-business agenda.
Last month, the mayor announced “OPEN for Small Business,” a package of more than 50 regulatory reforms aimed at reducing paperwork and bureaucratic burdens. The Five Borough Jobs Campaign welcomed the package but said it would continue pushing toward a goal Mamdani embraced during his campaign: cutting small-business fines and fees by 50%.
Peers said Monday that the administration was “off to a really good start” and called its regulatory reform effort “a very good first step,” while saying businesses still need an affordability agenda of their own.
He pointed to rising labor, utility, rent and insurance costs, saying nearly every major cost category facing small businesses has increased over the past five years.
A Stroll toward success
Brooklyn’s share of the funding was celebrated Friday in Bay Ridge, where Department of Small Business Services Commissioner Minerva Minaya joined Council Member Kayla Santosuosso, Assembly Member Alec Brook-Krasny, state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Deputy Brooklyn Borough President Kim Council, the Merchants of Third Avenue, Peers and representatives from several Brooklyn BIDs before taking part in the neighborhood’s Summer Stroll.
The awards will give the borough’s existing business groups additional resources while also helping neighborhoods build new ones.
In Bay Ridge, the Merchants of Third Avenue will receive $100,000 for merchant organizing, while the 86th Street Bay Ridge BID and Bay Ridge Fifth Avenue BID will receive $50,000 and $75,000, respectively.
Danielle Jabour, a realtor with Jabour Realty and secretary of the Merchants of Third Avenue, said the grant will have an immediate impact on the volunteer-run organization, which she described as a longtime fixture of the Bay Ridge community.
“I have been working full-time in our family-owned business for over 21 years, so Third Avenue isn’t just where I work, it’s a community I’ve been a part of my whole life,” Jabour said. “On behalf of the Merchants of Third Avenue, I want to thank the New York City Department of Small Business Services for this incredible grant.”
Jabour said the approximately 40-block commercial corridor has long been “the heartbeat” of Bay Ridge, but the merchants group operates on a limited budget funded through member dues, fundraising and community events.
“Because our resources are lean, this generous funding from SBS will have immediate and powerful impact,” she said.
The grant will help the Merchants of Third Avenue continue putting on events including the Summer Stroll, Third Avenue Festival, Runway of Hope breast cancer awareness event, Taste of Third Avenue food festival and annual holiday lights along the avenue, Jabour said.
Members of business groups from across Brooklyn celebrate the new grant funding during Bay Ridge’s Summer Stroll.Photo by Meaghan McGoldrick O’Neil
Elsewhere in Brooklyn, grants will support business groups in neighborhoods ranging from Coney Island and Brighton Beach to Bed-Stuy, Flatbush, East New York and Williamsburg.
The funding also includes $200,000 awards for the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and Red Hook Business Alliance, as well as money for BID development in Gowanus, Flatbush and Williamsburg.
A version of this story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site AMNY