SAN ANTONIO – Some San Antonio city officials wonder if a grant program is more about making the city feel better than it is about helping small businesses blocked in by lengthy city construction projects.
The City of San Antonio is preparing for its third construction grant program for small businesses, this time with $1.4 million in city money, rather than using federal pandemic relief funds that funded the previous rounds.
Most of the money would go to 40 businesses located near lengthy, city construction projects along South Alamo Street or the city’s “Zona Cultural,” near Market Square. Qualifying businesses would be able to get grants worth up to $35,000 to offset losses related to being stuck by the ongoing construction.
Smaller pots of money within the grant program would also be set aside this time for businesses near recently completed construction along Bynum Avenue, Bulverde Road and Broadway, or near the upcoming construction by Marbach Road. Those grants would be for narrower purposes, which could include improvements of the building and marketing.
The city council is expected to vote within the next few weeks on a contract for Lift Fund to administer the grants. City staff hope the application period for the active and post-construction grants will be open May 1-30, and the pre-construction grants will open on June 2.
Local businesses have voiced their concerns about the effect of lengthy construction, especially when the projects go past the original timeline.
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During a Wednesday council discussion, Mayor Ron Nirenberg questioned whether the grants made much of a difference.
“We’re in this sort of cycle of, ‘Are we making a difference with this?’ I know $1.4 million is a lot of money, but it’s meager in terms of the number of businesses,” Nirenberg said. “My point in all this is to say that I think our effort is better spent thinking about how we can shrink the timeline of these construction projects.”
City staff said their analysis of earlier grant programs found grant recipients had a 13% higher “survivability” rate in construction corridors compared to non-recipients.
“Frankly, hearing the feedback of these pilots over time tells me we’re spending this money, more to make ourselves feel like we’re doing something good for them, as opposed to actually having impact,” Nirenberg said.
Accommodation and food service businesses, specifically, they said, had a 25.5% greater survivability rate.
Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez supports the grant program, which he called a “softening of the blow.”
“Of course, $1.4 million is not going to address the problem, but not having a program like this isn’t going to make it any better,” McKee-Rodriguez said.
Public Works Director Razi Hosseini told KSAT the city is also preparing to make changes on certain projects moving forward. Among those changes include basing contractor selection on their qualifications, not just the lowest bid, as well as putting incentives and penalties tied to the completion date into the contract.
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