Toolkit Home | Economic Support | Tenant Loans & Tax Support
Providing access to loans and tax support to your legacy businesses.
Many legacy businesses operate in leased spaces and are especially vulnerable to rising rents, lease instability, and sudden displacement. Targeted economic support for legacy business tenants can be an essential component of your legacy business program, helping these businesses remain in place, plan for the future, and continue contributing to the cultural, social, and economic continuity of their neighborhoods. This section provides examples of low-cost or low-interest loans and tax support that might be incorporated into your legacy business program.
Low-Cost or Low-Interest Loans
Providing access to low-cost or low-interest loans as part of your legacy business program helps sustain your legacy businesses without requiring them to take on burdensome debt. This access to capital can significantly help with gap financing, modernization, market adaptation, building improvements, or repairs, especially to legacy business owners who may struggle to access or qualify for traditional loans. Here are a few options for providing access to these loans.
Revolving Loan Funds (RLFs)
RLFs are economic development funds managed by municipal, nonprofit, or private organizations at the local level. These programs generally offer low or no-interest loans to small business owners (and building owners). The term “revolving” implies the ongoing nature of these funds; as loans are repaid, the funds are “revolved” into new loans. These types of loans are commonly used to help long-term leaseholders make property improvements, enabling them to remain competitive and stay in place.
RLFs are not widely used as a tool in current legacy business programs. In fact, only Invest Atlanta runs their legacy business program, Atlanta Local Legends, in conjunction with their Revolving Loan Fund. However, if RLFs are available in your community, they can provide your legacy business owners (and building owners) with access to lower-cost financing to help improve and sustain their business, keeping them in place in their communities.
Community-Based Lending
Many community-based low-cost lending programs are available to small business owners. These programs provide more affordable financing options and often support business owners who struggle to access capital through traditional bank loans. These programs are frequently run by local nonprofit organizations, community-based credit unions, or Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).
Community First Lending
Community First Lending is a CDFI that provides small businesses with equitable lending services in the San Francisco Bay Area. With the formidable economic hurdles facing small businesses in the Bay Area, they focus on business owners who may not have access to traditional capital or gap financing, especially BIPOC, ethnic, immigrant, and women-run businesses.
Case in point.
Tax support: business tax assistance
Most tax support methods within legacy business programs predominantly focus on the building owner rather than the business owner. Yet many cities currently have small-business tax assistance or exemptions in place that could be leveraged to support a legacy business program. (See Los Angeles’ Small Business Tax Exemption as an example). Consider offering a business tax credit, for income or payroll, to help