, a soon-to-be business in Storrs Center, received a $100,000 grant through the state’s Small Business Express Program, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Wednesday.
The Café - one of five businesses in the state to receive a grant – will use the funds for “fit out of its space and start-up operations,” according to the governor’s office.
“When the legislature passed the jobs bill last October, we created the Small Business Express Program to help businesses grow and create jobs,” State Representative Gregory Haddad (D-Mansfield, Chaplin), said Wednesday in a prepared sttatement.
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The program is expected to provide a total of $100 million to small businesses throughout the state, according to the governor’s office.
“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,” Haddad said.
The Café is investing $496,550, and is expected to retain eight jobs and create 10 more, according to Malloy.
“The Dog Lane Café and the Storrs Center Project are a perfect example of smart growth investments we need to be making in Connecticut,” Senate President Donald E. Williams, Jr. (D-Brooklyn), said in a prepared statement.
“It will not only pay off in the short-term with construction jobs but in the long-term job retention and creation,” he said.
