New York City, including the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYEDC) is coordinating a set of services to help New York businesses in recovering from the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Below is an outline of available assistance and how you can access them.
Download Hurricane Sandy Business Recovery PDF.
Download Hurricane Sandy Business Recovery PDF (en español).
Download Hurricane Sandy Business Recovery PDF (中文).
Download Hurricane Sandy Business Recovery PDF (ру́сский язы́к).
The City of New York, Goldman Sachs, and the New York Bankers Association are providing $15 million in emergency loans to help New York City businesses damaged by Hurricane Sandy. NYC Business Solutions and the New York Business Development Corporation (NYBDC) will administer the loan program. If you are a small business in need of an emergency loan to recover from business interruption, you can now access loans of up to $25,000. Loans are interest-free for the first six months and 1% interest for the following 24 months. Businesses that are approved for a loan and have been displaced from their workplace for three weeks or more can also receive up to an additional $10,000 through the NYC Matching Grant.
Please see our Emergency Loan FAQs and NYC Matching Grant FAQs and fill out the application today. Applications must be submitted through an NYC Business Solutions Account Manager at one of the centers listed below. For more information, you can also fill out our inquiry form or call 311 and ask for “NYC Business Emergency Loan.”
Businesses and private non-profit organizations of any size may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace disaster-related damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory, and other business assets. To learn more about disaster loans provided by the SBA, visit sba.gov/disaster or call the SBA hotline (1-800-659-2955) or visit an NYC Business Solutions Center.
The New York City Industrial Development Agency will provide emergency assistance to small businesses by establishing the Hurricane Emergency Sales Tax Exemption Program (“HESTEP”). This program will provide sales tax exemptions of up to $100,000 for each affected company on purchases of building, construction and renovation materials, machinery and equipment and other items of personal property and related services needed to rebuild after the storm. Eligible businesses should obtain the HESTEP sales tax letter prior to making eligible capital expenditures. For more information, visit the EDC website. To apply, please fill out the following HESTEP Application and email it to HESTEP@nycedc.com.
Disaster Unemployment Assistance is a Federal program that can provide payments to people who have lost work or income due to Hurricane Sandy. Self-employed entrepreneurs are eligible if their business was damaged or destroyed, or their business income has been reduced as a direct result of the disaster. Deadline to apply for DUA has been extended to February 4, 2013. Apply for Disaster Unemployment Assistance today or call 1-888-209-8124 for more information.
If you need temporary office space:
Businesses can access desk space, power, internet and more at many locations throughout the five boroughs. You can access a complete listing of locations today. If your company can donate space or other services, please visit www.nycedc.com/canyourcompanyhelp.
Some locations include:
If you are in danger of laying off employees due to Hurricane Sandy:
The Shared Work program gives you an alternative to laying off full-time employees when you have to deal with temporary business downturns. It makes sense for you to keep productive employees. Instead of cutting staff, you can reduce the number of hours of all employees or just a select group, and the employees would receive Shared Work Benefits to help offset the lower wages. Apply today.
Disaster Unemployment Assistance is a Federal program that can provide payments to people who have lost work or income due to Hurricane Sandy. Deadline to apply for DUA has been extended to February 4, 2013. Send them to Disaster Unemployment Assistance to apply today or call 1-888-209-8124 for more information.
If you need help with business interruption:
- If you have access to your building, gather employee and supplier contact information, legal, insurance and financial records
- Lock your facility
- Document your losses and take high-quality photos of damages to the structure and your inventory
- Contact your insurance company
- Try to assess value of each item, with invoices and receipts where possible
- Discard perishable/dangerous items after documenting them
- Keep everything else to show to insurance companies
- Keep invoices or receipts if you are repairing the damages
- Contact your customers, your employees, and your suppliers
- Collect any logs of business decisions, communications, and correspondence you have
If you need on-site assistance, the SBS Business Outreach is currently on-call for any storm-related business inquiries and is closely coordinating with the NYC Office of Emergency Management. Please contact an account manager or call 311 and ask for “NYC Business Solutions.”
If you are a contractor who can provide immediate construction services:
NYC Rapid Repairs is a new program to send teams of contractors and City inspectors to areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Under unprecedented partnership with FEMA, City will coordinate all repair work and crews can work to quickly and efficiently repair damaged homes.
To register, go to BTEANY Rapid Repairs website. There is no fee to register your company. A program manager will then use the registration forms you fill out to identify specialty trade contractors to perform work. Unregistered contractors will not be contacted. For more information, go to the NYC Rapid Repairs program page.
