May 2, 2012
REP. HADDAD WELCOMES STATE GRANT
FOR NEW RESTAURANT IN STORRS
State Representative Gregory Haddad (D-Mansfield, Chaplin), Vice-chair of the Legislature’s Commerce Committee, and Governor Dannel P. Malloy announced that one of the tenants at the new Storrs Center has qualified for a grant through the state’s Small Business Express Program (EXP) The program was created as a part of the bipartisan jobs bill passed during last year’s jobs special session to encourage business expansion and job growth.
Dog Lane Café of Mansfield is investing $496,550 and will receive a job creation matching grant of $100,000 to help with the opening of the new restaurant. The Storrs Center Project is being developed as a mixed-use town center and main street corridor near the University of Connecticut campus. Dog Lane Café is committed to retain eight jobs and create 10 more under the program.
“When the legislature passed the jobs bill last October, we created the Small Business Express Program to help businesses grow and create jobs,” said Haddad. “Connecticut-owned and operated small businesses like Dog Lane Café, a new eatery from the same folks who own Eastern Connecticut's Vanilla Bean Café, are exactly the kind ventures that we should be supporting because they hire locally and are rooted in our community.”
“The Dog Lane Café and the Storrs Center Project are a perfect example of smart growth investments we need to be making in Connecticut,” added Senate President Donald E. Williams, Jr. (D-Brooklyn). “It will not only pay off in the short-term with construction jobs but in the long-term job retention and creation.”
In total, EXP will provide $100 million to help the state’s small businesses hire more employees and fund capital investments. The program, administered by the Department of Economic and Community Development, offers loans and matching grants to Connecticut companies with fewer than 50 employees at the time of application.
“The jobs created by retail and service companies are often the product of hardworking and determined self-employed entrepreneurs,” Governor Malloy said. “The Small Business Express Program is proving very responsive to this important sector of our economy, one that has tremendous potential for job growth and retention.”