Rochester’s Keep it Local, COVID-19 Innovators Grant Program

Collaborators 

Lead Organization: City of Rochester, MN, DMC EDA, Rochester Downtown Alliance

Contact: TBD ; Email: TBD ; Phone: TBD

Known/Likely Collaborators: City of Rochester, MN ; DMC EDA ; Rochester Downtown Alliance

Potential Collaborators:

Related Projects

Impacts 

Major Impact:  COVID-19

PlanScape Impacts :

Level 1: Economic Development, Funding, Governance/Public Policy, Pandemic

Level 2:

DMC Impacts:

Community Health Impacts:

Type of Project

Special  

The COVID-19 crisis has presented many challenges to Rochester’s small business community and has also inspired quick and creative innovation and collaboration. The City of Rochester has approved $50,000 in grant funds to help Rochester-based small businesses and organizations that are helping each other respond, adapt, and strengthen Rochester’s economy for the future. Destination Medical Center is making an additional $50,000 available for businesses located in the DMC/EDA geographic area.

HOW IT WORKS:

A small business or organization within Rochester applies for the Keep it Local grant for a specific service to be paid to another small business or service provider (or team of providers) within Rochester. The projects should help a business respond to COVID-19 in the short term and grow in a new way in the long term. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Payments will be made to the applicant business, and applicant businesses will pay service providers.

Need help determining the best project for your business? Contact SCORE or SBDC for free or low-cost business coaching. 

APPLY:

Review the grant details and application process below and apply here. The next batch of application reviews will begin following a deadline of Friday, May 1, 2020.

List of local service providers

LINK

Home Ownership Creation Program - Prairie Ridge: "NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Common Council of the City of Rochester, MN hereby approves the contribution of $4,000,000 to the Prairie Ridge development to support the creation of 201 for-sale homes via the Home Ownership Creation Program.

 PB Reporting regarding TIF $14M Requests (Sherman and Prairie Ridge) 2024-12-14 

Referendum to support: Strong Communities; Strong Schools; Strong Young People

PB Reporting on Referendum Efforts and Results

Support for: Drug and Alcohol Response Team (DART), CredibleMind, "Be in the Know Olmsted" Campaign

City Council Oct 2024 on DMC 2025 Budget

September 2024 DMCC Board Meeting with 2025 Workplan Breakout

May 2024 DMCC Board Meeting and City, County, DMC Joint Meeting

Feb 2024 DMCC Board Meeting

Vision 2050 AI-Powered Interactive Survey LINK

Mayor Norton Memo to the Public

September 2022 DMCC Board Status: NTH to run a developer selection process with Mayo

City teammates providing an update on this work, specifically regarding legacy public infrastructure projects, Unbound, infrastructure investments and regulatory milestones.  

Post Bulletin Reporting

United Way 2024 ALICE  (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Report 

Sept. 16^th: Workshop: Finding your First Customers and sell without being salesy; Sept 21^st: Workshop: Financial Literacy; Sept. 28^th: Workshop: How to Start a Business from Scratch (Part 1); Oct. 5^th: Workshop: How to Start a Business from Scratch (Part 2);

3Q2024: July 2024 Admin Message and Reports

July 17, 2024 City of Rochester: Adopting a Resolution authorizing an amendment to the Development Assistance Agreement and the Declaration of Restrictive Covenants to revise the affordability covenants related to the 80% Units.

March and May 2023 reports to DMCC including video, documents and presentations. 

2Q 2024: June 2024; May 2024 - Admin Message, TBE Report; April 2024 - Admin Message, TBE Report

1Q 2024: Feb 2024 - Admin Message, TBE Report; Jan 2024: Admin Message, TBE Report

Special callouts: Women in Construction; City of Rochester Equity in Development