Hurricane Sandy Business Recovery Information
New York City, including the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), is coordinating a set of services to assist small businesses in recovering from Hurricane Sandy. Below is an outline of available programs and relevant contact information.
New York City Business Assistance Programs
For small- to mid-sized businesses that have experienced business interruption
An emergency loan for businesses will be available, patterned after similar programs deployed in past emergencies. Loans will be capped at $10,000. Please
click this link
to contact an NYC Business Solutions Account Manager or call 311 and ask for NYC Business Emergency Loan.
For mid- to large-sized businesses that need to undertake rebuilding
An emergency sales tax letter from New York City Industrial Development Authority (IDA) will be available allowing businesses to avoid payment of New York City and New York State sales taxes on materials purchased for rebuilding. IDA will also waive all fees and, while following State law, look to streamline its normal procedure. This program is expected to offer economic benefits to reconstruction projects costing $500,000 or more. Please contact Shin Mitsugi at
smitsugi@nycedc.com for further information on this program.
For any business that is temporarily displaced from its space
Short-term "swing" office space at Brooklyn Army Terminal available free of charge for the next 30 days. NYCEDC has approximately 40,000 square feet of warehouse space at the Terminal that can be used for this purpose. Please
click this link
to contact an NYC Business Solutions Account Manager or call 311 and ask for NYC Business Solutions.
For any business in need of other emergency assistance
The SBS Business Outreach Team and Emergency Response Unit’s Large Scale Response Team will be deployed after the storm to help all impacted small businesses. This team is currently on-call for any storm-related business inquiries and is closely coordinating with the NYC Office of Emergency Management. Please click this link
to contact an NYC Business Solutions Account Manager or call 311 and ask for NYC Business Solutions.
Federal Aid Programs for Disaster Recovery
Click here for information from the Federal Small Business Administration on disaster recovery assistance.
Below are the NYC Business Solutions Centers' operation for November 1st:
Brooklyn - Open at 10:00 AM
Queens - Open at 10:00 AM
Bronx - Open at 10:00 AM
Upper Manhattan - Open at 10:00 AM
Washington Heights - Open at 10:00 AM
Lower Manhattan - Closed
Staten Island - Closed
All NYC Business Solutions Center courses are cancelled through Friday, November 2nd.
NYC Business Solutions is a set of free services offered by the Department of Small Business Services to help businesses start, operate, and expand in New York City. Whether you're an entrepreneur, running a small business or a large corporation, NYC Business Solutions can work for you - for free.