The Panorama City Business Assistance Program will lose its funding from the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles on November 30. The one-year contract for $256,000 expires and will not be renewed, the CRA said. The program’s mission includes revitalization of retail and office space and providing no-charge consulting services and workshops to existing and prospective businesses in the area. For example, the Valley Economic Development Center Business Assistance Program presented a workshop on starting a kiosk business earlier this month. Also, the program assists in financing for new and existing businesses. The primary service area for the program is Sherman Way to the south, Lassen Street to the north, Woodman Avenue to the east and the 405 Freeway to the west. The program is administered by the Valley Economic Development Center (VEDC). Warren Cooley, director of retail and economic development for the VEDC, said there will be a true economic and community effect from the loss of funding. He cites the results of program so far: “eight new businesses, with 17 or 18 new jobs and eight or nine retained jobs in businesses that have tapped into the services. “It’s a significant project under way,” Cooley said, noting that the program is in the first year of a three-year project, and has begun to brand the area and build upon improvements that have come about in the last year. “It’s a waste of taxpayer resources” to interrupt the program by not renewing the contract, he said. The CRA/LA’s original Request For Proposals sought a one-year contract with the option for two one-year extensions to the program and Cooley said that is exactly the groundwork that the Business Assistance Program has been laying. The CRA, however, said it’s taking a larger tack. Kiara Harris, L.A. Community Redevelopment Agency director of communication & public affairs, said the VEDC has done some “foundation work that we may be able to use,” but working with the City Council offices and the coming Business Improvement District allows the CRA to take a more “comprehensive approach” and “not go program by program.” Harris said there are other resources available to the VEDC and “we’re optimistic that whatever advocacy we can bring within the city family, there’s a very good chance” funding can continue. Cooley said there’s an option for funding through the Community Development Department, but that could not begin before April 1, 2008. Bruce Ackerman, CRA board member, said he hopes that the program will be able to maintain momentum until new funding can be found. “They spent a year building up contacts in the business community,” he said.”There’s no issue of performance. They did a fabulous job.” It will be difficult, Ackerman said, because the funding supported maintaining an office and staff that provided direct assistance in the community. Cooley asserted there was not only an economic implication but a community implication losing the momentum of the Business Assistance Program has established. The community needs assistance, as Cooley sees it. “This is a project creating a positive image in a place that the city sees has image issues,” and those issues are why they established the RFP in the first place, he said. Cooley said that the CRA/LA has been forthright and above board about their desire to not renew. “This was not an 11th hour thing,” he said.
