An area nonprofit targeted on financial improvement and progress on town’s close to Eastside introduced earlier this week that it has secured its first federal grant in a decade — simply as its slated funding from the Metropolis of San Antonio has dried up.
On Wednesday, San Antonio for Progress on the Eastside (SAGE) shared that it has been named because the recipient of a $150,000 group financial improvement planning award. The grant will go towards establishing a public market advanced at a but undecided location on the East Facet of San Antonio, just like the Change Meals Corridor in Dallas or the Fareground in Austin, stated SAGE’s newest CEO, James Nortey, who began in January.
SAGE acquired the final of its Financial Growth Division {dollars} from town in September, a fund it had trusted for about 20 years and is present process a big shift in the place its income comes from, though he famous SAGE continues to be receiving a few of the final remaining ARPA {dollars} from town. This new federal planning grant is a step in the precise course, he added.
“As a new CEO, it was incumbent upon me to seek out new sources of funding,” he stated. “We’ve not utilized for a federal grant in 10 years … this was one of many first alternatives I discovered that was a very good match.”
The brand new grant will assist the nonprofit collect native enter, carry out research on potential market places, and draw up an preliminary imaginative and prescient, Nortey stated. SAGE will launch functions to create a steering committee made up of group members for the venture within the new yr, and might be in search of native enterprise house owners, builders and distributors as companions, he famous.
“We wish to get the group’s enter for finest places and for what the wants are,” Nortey stated. “There are several types of markets — folks could wish to see one thing nearer to a meals truck court docket that’s indoors. I don’t need this to simply be what James Nortey thinks is finest, however what the group thinks is finest. The East Facet is already overanalyzed and over-asked — what we wish to see is comply with via. We’re uninterested in being talked to, now we’re attempting to place this in motion.”
The grant utility was supported by Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-Texas). Within the grant announcement, Castro stated the brand new hub will hopefully strengthen the realm’s economic system and supply a helpful house for folks to come back collectively.
“For greater than 25 years, [SAGE]… has supported native small companies by working to handle financial disparities and create alternatives for progress,” he stated. “I sit up for seeing this venture come to life on the East Facet.”
