BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — After months of deliberations, at Thursday's Buffalo's Common Council Special Session, Council members voted to approve the forgivable loan of more than $560,000 for Braymiller Market and $3.5 million in grants to small businesses in the City of Buffalo. The company in charge of administering the money is also offering $2 million loan for small businesses to apply for.
University District Council Member Rasheed Wyatt added a resolution to the small business funding vote. This resolution is a request that city administration meets with Council members on a monthly basis to ensure the money reaches businesses that need it.
In a statement to 7 News, Mayor Byron Brown said he is pleased with the outcome.
"I'm pleased the council passed these important items today. I thank them for working closely with my administration in order to fund these key projects going forward," he wrote.
As first reported by WKBW, Braymiller Market was looking for financial support after the owner, Stuart Green, said the business was suffering due to pandemic losses.
March 2023
The city administration put in a request to Council members asking them to approve a CDBG-CV grant, which is now considered a forgivable loan, that would reallocate more than $562,000 to provide assistance to the City of Buffalo's only downtown grocery store.
Braymiller opened to much fanfare in September 2021 as part of a mixed-use project that also included more than 200 affordable apartments.
In March, Brendan Mehaffy, executive director of the City of Buffalo's Office of Strategic Planning told 7 News' Kristen Mirand in the year and a half since opening, the business experienced some pandemic setbacks. Mehaffy said the market was not seeing much foot traffic.
A week before Council members met, Council President Darius Pridgen told Mirand it was frustrating that he and other Council members found out about the request without any notice. Pridgen said he wanted to know why other small businesses in the city weren't considered
April 2023
During a Finance Committee, Green, alongside Lisa Hicks, with the Office of Strategic Planning, answered questions from Council members.
"It's difficult for me to say let's give a business $500,000 when there's no other grocery store that asks for any type of assistance," Wyatt said to Hicks and Green in April.
Hicks said that the city feels this particular business never received the opportunity to be provided with any relief since the market opened during the pandemic. Green stated in the April meeting that he would like to half a million dollars to change its business model.
Pridgen told Mirand following the April meeting that he would not vote yes until he sees a business plan and finances laid out from the business.
June 2023
At a June meeting, Council members denied Braymiller of the more than $560,000 loan. Wyatt said the majority of the council members were on board with the decision.
"It didn't feel good to me. It wouldn't be right to the business who are struggling that we gave one entity, one business 500 hundred thousand dollars and they're still waiting for their additional dollars to help them with their businesses," Wyatt said.
He later filed a resolution asking the city to instead put the $562,000 loan toward other struggling small businesses across all nine districts.
July 2023
In early July at a cash mob event, Green and Mayor Brown pushed for Council members to reconsider the loan.
"We started out a little further behind from where we expected because of the pandemic and so we got to kind of makeup for that so that we can continue to move forward," Green said at the event.
A few days later, Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation promised to provide an additional $500,000 to the grocery store, only if Council members approved the second request for a forgivable loan.
At the July 11 meeting, Council members voted to send Brown's request to the Finance Committee for further review.
On July 18, Wyatt further discussed his proposal to reallocate the loan for Braymiller and instead provide that to small businesses.
"You can campaign so hard for one business but where's that same effort for the others who have gone through pandemics and blizzards," Wyatt said during the meeting.
He also invited small business owners in the City of Buffalo to share why they feel they need the funding.
While at the meeting, Mehaffy presented a city-wide program that would provide funding to small businesses.
On July 25, Council members were prepared to vote yet again on the forgivable loan for Braymiller and the millions of dollars for small businesses, but the Council did not take action and instead called a special meeting for Thursday.
Council members raised concerns over a nationwide company that would administer the funding to small businesses. Instead, Council members wanted a Buffalo-based company to be in charge of that.
"We're back to where we started - that one business gets a half a million and the other businesses who may be have been eligible for five million dollars won't get anything, so we didn't want to take that chance today," Pridgen said.
