NOLA Business Alliance

New Orleans is the third most COVID-19 exposed metro area in the country, outside of Las Vegas and Orlando, due to its reliance on hospitality/leisure spending. Within New Orleans, key communities that were once thriving or emerging entrepreneurial hubs, after years of disinvestment and natural disasters, now struggle to regain footing as we enter the post-pandemic world. To address the record economic fallout while supporting the entrepreneurial community, this initiative will stimulate three New Orleans Opportunity Zone-located commercial corridors (New Orleans East, Treme and Algiers), further pivoting the city into more resilient industry development sectors of technology, bioinnovation, and food production.

Funding will allow local entrepreneurs to reimagine food product innovation, showcasing the cultural richness of New Orleans’ cuisine, normally experienced through a human-interaction economy, and carving a space for entrepreneurial ideation in the thriving bioinnovation space. Entitled the “Resilient Corridors Initiative,” this project will scale and largely Black-owned small businesses in the primary service areas.

Led by the New Orleans Business Alliance, the public-private economic development partnership for the City of New Orleans, and partnering organizations including the City of New Orleans, this project is embedded within a larger strategy to stabilize seven commercial corridors through technical assistance and seed funding. Entrepreneurs will be empowered to accelerate planned milestones for securing industry specific investment; create and implement resiliency plans to expand company footprints; enact safety/health business protocols; and cross collaborate with other businesses to yield new lines of service and enter new markets.