The initiative, geared toward minority-owned small business owners, aims to break down barriers to capital funding in traditionally underserved areas.
Tatyana Johnson For the Arizona Daily Star Tucson’s small business owners belonging to underrepresented communities will soon be able to receive resources to help them grow and maintain their ventures through a new loan fund that will provide capital for operations.
The exact amount of funding has yet to be ironed out, but preliminary considerations are to invest around $6 million into the loan fund. That includes a tentative amount of $1.5 million from the city of Tucson, which the IDA is prepared to match. “There's a lot of historic reasons why this is the case, but a lot of folks don't have that credit history. So they're prohibited from participating in traditional capital … you need to get a loan in order to stabilize your credit score, but you can't get a loan until you have a high credit score,” she said.
The Transform Tucson Program Fund also created the AVANZA Empowerment Center that’s scheduled to open as soon as Fall 2025. The business hub, located downtown, will be a place for small business owners to receive resources to help grow their business, such as access to a commercial kitchen and event spaces to hold meetings, according to the city.
“As the building is being built, we’re working on ways to streamline the experience for small businesses … we’re going to make it easy for them to receive the business support and lending in a streamlined way,” Thompson said. These resources are available to anyone seeking business guidance, and will also be provided to all AVANZA loan recipients through the Transform Tucson fund.
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