Title
Resolution Authorizing a City Funded Challenge Grant of up to $250,000.00 in Matching funds to Renaissance Community Cooperative for Economic Development and Job Creation
Body
Department: CMO
Council District: 2
Public Hearing: April 7, 2015
Advertising Date/By: March 26, 2015
Contact 1 and Phone: Chris Wilson - Assistant City Manager, City of Greensboro 373-2002
Contact 2 and Phone: Kathi Dubel - Manager, Economic Development & Business Support 373-4579
PURPOSE:
Consider an Economic Development Challenge Grant to the Renaissance Community Cooperative to Create New Employment Opportunities in Northeast Greensboro.
BACKGROUND:
In 1998, the Winn-Dixie grocery store on Phillips Avenue in Northeast Greensboro closed. Efforts to attract a full service grocery to the location have not been successful. Over the last three years, a group of community residents, in collaboration with other groups, formed themselves into the Renaissance Coop Committee (RCC) and began educating themselves about the responsibilities and benefits of community-ownership of a grocery store.
The community-owned cooperative grocery store will address three documented needs of the northeast Greensboro community (approximate population 35,000) where it will be located: (1) Need for a full-service neighborhood grocery store that sells fresh food at affordable prices; (2) Need for greater economic opportunity (more and better jobs, plus wealth creation opportunities): and
(3) Need for better ways for the community to work together to solve its own problems and create the kind of community it wants. The Renaissance Community Cooperative (RCC) will meet these needs through a store that offers to its customers and the community:
- A wide range of healthy foods - including plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats - available at affordable prices right in the neighborhood
- An attractive, welcoming store
- Decent jobs with good pay and benefits filled by people from the community
- A store owned by the community that will stay in the community, with the explicit mission of building community health and wealth
Renaissance Community Cooperative is requesting financial assistance from the City Council of the City of Greensboro. City staff has proposed a Challenge grant of up to $250,000 in matching funds to assist in fundraising efforts with Guilford County and other sources. Renaissance Community Cooperative is on its way to opening a 10,000 square feet full-service grocery store in the Renaissance Shops at Phillips Avenue, formerly the Bessemer Shopping Center. The Renaissance Community Cooperative has obtained, through owner shares, grants, loans, and fundraising efforts, $1.2M of the $1.79M needed to open the cooperative grocery store as of the March 16, 2015 Status of Fundraising report.
The Renaissance Community Cooperative plans to be operational no later than November 2015. The store will be a community-owned cooperative, democratically controlled by its member-owners, the majority of whom will be drawn from Northeast Greensboro. This project will have a significant impact on alleviating food disparity issues in a food desert in Greensboro, create new jobs, and assist in the revitalization of the Renaissance Shops at Phillips Avenue. The Renaissance Community Cooperative will enter into a performance-based grant agreement with the City of Greensboro. Terms of the grant agreement are in the attachment Challenge Grant Terms.
BUDGET IMPACT: A maximum amount of up to $250,000.00. The Challenge Grant will be funded from the Economic Development Fund ($200,000), CDBG Fund ($50,000), or other available sources to be available in FY15/16.
RECOMMENDATION / ACTION REQUESTED: Consideration of a Resolution authorizing an economic development Challenge Grant not to exceed the amount of $250,000.00 to Renaissance Community Cooperative. The conditions of the public participation will be contained in a performance agreement between the City of Greensboro and Renaissance Community Cooperative.