New Bedford Business Update from EDC’s Derek Santos

Derek Santos is plugged into business in New Bedford. As Executive Director of the New Bedford Economic Development Council, his office works every day with small businesses. Santos also has his eye on larger projects as well, like the proposed development of the New Bedford Municipal Golf Course off Hathaway Road.

Santos discussed both large and small projects during a visit to Townsquare Sunday.

As for the golf course project, the first round of bids for the 100-acre site resulted in no takers. Santos said the next round will see some changes.

"The city council approved a revised Request for Proposals (RFP) and bids are expected about a month from now," he said. "The EDC and other city departments went back to the drawing board and asked themselves, what can be done to make this project more appealing?"

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"All of the changes were geared around making the project more flexible for folks to submit proposals," Santos said. The new RFP allows developers to submit a proposal for 39 acres or the entire site.

"We've received strong interest so far, let's see what happens on May 16th," he said.

While big projects are always exciting, small business remains the focus of the Economic Development Council and its staff.

"Small businesses are at the heart of what we do," Santos said. "Seventy-five percent of our time is working with small businesses, one way or the other."

The EDC offers three programs to help small businesses in areas like technical assistance, plus lending and grant making.

NB100 is helping to create 100 new businesses that have never existed before. NB Forward assists existing businesses to become more viable and plan for their future, and Art Net is a program aimed at boosting artists and their business.

"We've issued 242 grants and loans to artistic businesses in the past several years," Santos said. "That's a lot."

To learn more about what the EDC has to offer, visit the New Bedford Economic Development Council website.

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