HARWICH PORT – Lt. Governor Karyn Polito was on Cape Cod Tuesday to make formal announcements on local business and housing assistance.
She discussed the Small Business Technical Assistance Grant Program in Harwich Port.
The program, a part of the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation, offers financial solutions, loans, diversity programs, and more to organizations across the state.
Forty-seven organizations that aid small businesses statewide were provided with a total of $3 million in grants from the program.
“Small business development is really key for downtowns, and main streets, and communities overall,” Polito said.
“They employ a lot of people, they offer good services, and they create some economic vitality.”
Polito said around half of the state’s employees work within small businesses, and that the small business workforce is the “backbone” of the Massachusetts economy.
Polito was joined at the event by MGCC President and CEO Larry Andrews, as well as Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Mike Kennealy and local leaders at Brax Landing Restaurant, one of the small businesses that recently received state funding following the July tornadoes.
State Senator Julian Cyr said that while he and other state officials from Cape Cod are in support of the program, he would like to see state funding expand for initiatives like this in the future.
“Yes, it’s an amazing program, but I think we should do a lot more; particularly for our region, where small business really is the bread and butter of our economy,” Cyr said.
Earlier in the day, Polito visited Provincetown for a spotlight event on the administration’s Housing Choice legislation, and how housing can address certain workforce needs in the area.
Presentations regarding MassWorks funding for the towns of Truro and Brewster were also on Polito’s Tuesday agenda in addition to the Harwich Port announcement.
Cyr specifically highlighted the Truro grant, which provides $1.2 million for the connection of a water line from Route 6A to the Cloverleaf affordable housing project.
The project will support a 40B housing project at that site, and unlock $14.2 million in private investment.
Though originally slated for eight units of housing, by extending the municipal water line 1,500 feet, the Cloverleaf site will accommodate 42 units of new rental housing, better addressing Truro’s severe need for affordable housing.
The project will be done in two phases. Phase 1 will leverage a MassHousing Planning for Housing Production grant to bring the water line to the site.
Phase 2 will occur during housing construction and includes connecting the units to the new water line.
In Brewster, the MassWorks Infrastructure Program grant will be worth $1.68 million. The award leverages more than $11 million in private investments and $550,000 in local funding to create 30 new units of affordable housing.
Brewster Woods is a proposed 30-unit rental housing development with a mix of 1, 2, and 3-bedroom apartments that will serve residents at 30 to 60 percent of Area Mean Income.
MassWorks funds will support construction of a new roadway that will extend Brewster Road to access the new housing units and connect to existing residents in an adjacent 32-unit housing development owned by Brewster Housing Authority, and a 24-unit affordable senior building.
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