City of Miami - Community Development

In addition, the City of Miami provides assistance to business owners through the city’s Economic Initiatives and ACCESS Miami.

The objective of assisting business owners is to foment the creation of viable communities by providing assistance to facilitate business incubation development, and job creation/ retention.

This program helps for-profit business owners within the City of Miami who receive a notice of violation on their commercial property from the Building and/or Code Enforcement Department and need assistance to bring that property up to code.

The Commercial Code Compliance Program provides up to $15,000 in assistance towards bringing the property up to code including electrical, building, fire, plumbing, mechanical, structural and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance issues. The business owner would be responsible for paying up to 15 percent of the total cost of the work. In order to be eligible, the applicant/business must provide services to a primarily residential area where at least 51 percent of the residents are of low- to moderate-income.

Once the business receives a notice of code violation, it should contact the Community Based Organizations (CBO) in their District to see if funding is available for the program within their District and to confirm that the business qualifies for the program based on the program guidelines. The CBOs to contact for this program are as follows:

Per 24CFR 570.202(a)(3), rehabilitation of privately owned commercial or industrial buildings is limited to improvement to the exterior of the building and correction of code violations. Furthermore, the City requires that improvements be limited to improvements that are visible from a commercial corridor.

Participating for-profit businesses will be required to provide matching funds according to the following chart:

               Award Amount              Matching Funds
                $2,000 and below                        5%
              $2,001 to $5,000                        10%
               $5,001 to $10,000                      15%

Please contact the agencies below for further details and requirements of the program:

The Revolving Loan Pilot Program is funded via the Economic Development Loan Fund (“EDLF”) Program with Community Development Block Grant (“CDBG”) funds, authorized under 24 CFR 570. Special Target Areas were formed for this program which provides forgivable loans of up to $10,000 to for-profit businesses located in specific Districts of the City of Miami. This program provides businesses with financial assistance to support the retention and creation of jobs for low to moderate income City residents. Funds are provided to create economic benefit through increased revenues and the creation and the retention of jobs in the City.

All loans require the applicant to create or retain one, full time, permanent job (position) for every $10,000.00, or parts thereof, loaned. At least fifty one percent (51%) of all jobs (positions) created or retained must be made available to low and moderate income persons as defined by HUD under Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937. Click here for an application. Click here for program guidelines.

Note: The use of funds for construction activities such as renovation, improvement and expansion will trigger a requirement that prevailing wages be paid for all labor (Davis Bacon Wage Rates)