Matt Ritter

A total of $5.6 million was recently allocated to help expand the city’s Neighborhood Investment Fund (NIF) Program to the Farmington Avenue commercial corridor. 

Hartford's NIF program supports new retail and service businesses looking to open storefronts in underserved areas of the city. This new funding expands the program by targeting a pair of specific intersections at Farmington Avenue and Laurel Street, as well as Farmington Avenue and Sisson Avenue.

The City has done a great job of making these neighborhoods look better and making the streets safer for pedestrians. This program will help add more storefronts and create more activity on the streets. 

Under the program, entrepreneurs hoping to launch businesses in these areas, can apply for forgivable loans of up to $250,000 to renovate spaces and buy equipment.

Thriving neighborhoods are critical to the success of a city by creating vibrant communities, and investments such as this are an important part of the equation. 

This round of funding is result of a combination of state bonding for Connecticut's Community Investment Fund which I helped create, as well unspent federal Covid-relief dollars. 

You can read more about the new funding and Hartford's NIF economic development program in these articles from The Hartford Courant and Hartford Business Journal.