In the vast Queens marketplace, there is a continuous struggle toward financial growth and economic development.

Here in the Better Business Borough, businesses are assisted by various economic development organizations designed to assist business growth – often giving the businesses a needed boost, spurring greater success.

The Queens County Overall Economic Development Corporation helps individuals and organizations throughout the entire borough.

The QCOEDC assists local neighborhood development by carrying out real estate development projects which are identified by individual communities. Using marketing techniques, the QCOEDC finds potential businesses and organizations to lease the newly available space.

Additionally, the QCOEDC furnishes market studies, demographic profiles and potential site locations for new businesses through its "Queens Access" program. Businesses looking to expand, benefit from the QCOEDC’s analysis of the value of city and state business incentives, and data on property taxes, equipment loans and employment training.

The QCOEDC also provides clients with technical assistance and access to financing and equity investment. It conducts entrepreneurial training programs, business counseling and financial packaging for working capital loans to minority and women-owned businesses.

Through cooperation with local banks, small firms have access to QCOEDC regional economic assistance corporation loans. The $1 million fund provides direct loans of $5,000-50,000 at prime +1.5 percent for up to five years. The Queens County Micro-Enterprise Fund offers very small ($500-1,500) short-term (90 to 120-day) loans for new start-ups or expanding businesses. "Low documentation" small business loans for up to $50,000 are also available from private lenders through the QCOEDC.

The QCOEDC places strong emphasis on business recruitment and retention. Overall, QCOEDC Executive Director Marie Nahikian says job loss is much less of a problem in Queens than in other boroughs. Nahikian credits Queens’ central location, its diverse, well-educated labor pool, affordable business operation and an "amazingly creative entrepreneurial spirit" as the main reasons why the Queens economy is "business friendly."

Queens’ business growth is very favorable when compared to other boroughs, Nahikian says. She points to job increases in import/export, freight services and small manufacturing as areas of steady growth.

According to the QCOEDC, Queens has over 800 small manufacturers, more than any other borough. In order to maintain Queens’ manufacturing base, the QCOEDC has targeted 65 core manufacturing businesses in order to address business concerns and reduce potential job loss.

In the last 20 years, the QCOEDC has assisted in the creation and development of 22 of the borough’s 25 local economic development corporations. It continues to assist development corporations at the neighborhood level through merchant strip organizing, marketing and commercial real estate development.

Contact the QCOEDC at 263-0546. Their offices are located at Borough Hall.

The Central Astoria Local Development Corporation works with approximately 1,000 retailers and merchants on Steinway Street, Broadway, 30th Avenue and 36th Avenue. Each of the businesses has an active merchants’ association that represents it, and CALDC acts as an umbrella organization to provide technical assistance to each group.

"We really work with the merchant associations to make sure that they achieve their goals of making sure the streets are clean and safe and that new business finds it desirable to come in," said Gus Kobleck, CALDC executive director. "We try to keep them informed of programs that are available to small businesses that will help them expand."

With commercial revitalization funding from the New York City Department of Business Services, CALDC provides merchant organizations with funds needed to supplement the city’s street cleaning schedule and to provide street banners to promote the area.

While rebounding from a devastating Sept. 18 fire that destroyed five buildings and closed seven businesses, Steinway Street hasn’t missed a beat. With the assistance of the mayor’s office, the City Council and Speaker Peter Vallone’s office, and the cooperation of property owners, merchants and the community, displaced businesses have been assisted in rebuilding what was destroyed.

Most of the owners affected by the fire received one-time grants, and several have applied for low-interest loans to rebuild and re-establish their businesses. "We’re expecting reconstruction to take place within the next five to eight months," Kobleck said.

On Steinway Street and throughout Astoria, the economy is strong. "We have four viable shopping streets to service the district, and probably a market way beyond Astoria," Kobleck said.

Contact CALDC at 728-7820.

Set in one of the most diverse business areas of Queens, the Jackson Heights Community Development Corporation provides technical assistance to merchants’ associations, individual businesses and prospective businesses alike.

The JHCDC organizes meetings, provides information on traffic and sanitation issues, monitors sales trends in the area and is heavily involved in entrepreneurial development and training. Since early last year, JHCDC, through the Queens Business Outreach Center, has offered a comprehensive entrepreneurial training program. The 10-week college-level course primarily helps start-up businesses develop effective business plans. The course coincides with a scholarship program available to low-income applicants at Plaza Business Institute.

JHCDC Executive Director Eric Jacobs is proud that 50 people have been graduated from the course. But Jacobs is also proud of the follow-up the organization has provided to all phases of business in Jackson Heights.

"In the last year, we’ve helped 150 businesses in what’s considered start-up and co-start-up, and helped leverage over $1.5 million of financing for the community," Jacobs said.

A center for Queens’ expanding Latino market, the economic outlook in the Jackson Heights area is on the upswing. "Northern Queens is definitely one of the strongest and most viable economic forces – certainly in the borough, if not the city," Jacobs said. "We have everything that a potential business person will want."

Contact JHCDC at 476-3173.

The College Point Board of Trade has been in operation for 29 years. Like other economic development organizations in Queens, CPBT works as a referral service for area businesses by directing them to the resources needed to assist their businesses.

CPBT President Fred Mazzarello says the business climate in the area is changing, and he often worries about the direction of the changes.

According to Mazzarello, the introduction of megastores such as B.J.’s Price Club and Target, in addition to several other businesses in the College Point Corporate Park, threatens to siphon business away from smaller retailers on College Point Boulevard. He thinks that the new shopping area will also increase traffic problems along 20th, Linden and College Park Avenues.

Along College Point Boulevard, CPBT reports a dramatic change in the type of small business drawn to the area. "We’re getting buried with bodegas," Mazzarello said, noting that they "utilize limited business space on College Point Boulevard and take up business space for things that we need."

Contact CPBT at 939-3393.

Through the use of various cooperative economic development and economic utilization programs, the Ridgewood Local Development Corporation has serviced the diversified industrial and commercial communities of Ridgewood, Glendale and Middle Village since 1978.

Like other areas of Queens, the Ridgewood area has faced difficult economic times.

However, Theodore Renz, executive director of RLDC, firmly believes that the overall economic climate in the area is on the rebound.

"I’m hearing from merchants that business is still sluggish. They think that the worst is over. Now there’s gradual improvement," Renz said.

In addition to aiding business progress in Ridgewood, RLDC also directs the day-to-day management activities along Myrtle Avenue through the Myrtle Avenue Business Improvement District.

Since 1988, MABID has solved various service, delivery and business issues among the 300-member organization. The BID schedules annual Christmas parades, street fairs and other special events. It also offers $10,000 micro-loan programs to assist existing businesses.

Although Ridgewood is home to one of the largest concentrations of knitted outerwear manufacturers in the country, the area is diverse. Wholesale food processing and fabricated steel factories also prominently populate the Ridgewood area.

Contact RLDC at 366-3608.

Long Island City is one of Queens County’s strongest and most stable economic areas. Home to commercial manufacturing, trucking, warehousing and industrial contractors, Long Island City is widely known as a heavily industrial and commercial area. However, as Thomas Knierim, executive director of the Long Island City Business Development Corporation, pointed out, the area is far from one-dimensional.

"Long Island City is one of the healthiest industrial areas in the city. In fact, it’s [one of the] healthiest communities," he said.

Working with a relatively small $400,000 budget, LICBDC remains effective by taking a pro-active role with city and state agencies. The organization influences public policy to enhance business growth and development, and uses established business contacts to provide business referrals from the real estate community to locate potential tenants and assist existing businesses.

"We’re not only a chamber of commerce, but also a source of technical assistance and a neighborhood planning group, as well," Knierim said.

Although the decisions of high-profile businesses, such as Cunard Lines Ltd. and Swingline, to leave Long Island City has hurt the area, Knierim said their departure is a widespread trend in the post-NAFTA economy. "It’s almost a surprise not that they’ve left, but that they stayed here as long as they did," he said.

The trend is toward smaller manufacturers. So, rather than one major manufacturer replacing Swingline, LICBDC expects several smaller companies to utilize the vacated Swingline facility and replace the lost jobs.

LICBDC fully expects the area’s thriving economy to show further gains. Knierim points to the Queens West residential project on the East River waterfront, and a resulting increase of commercial development to service the larger residential component, as a sign of economic gain.

Contact LICBDC 786-5300.

The business economy is Woodhaven is driven primarily by a variety of small, independently owned retail establishments.

The Greater Woodhaven Development Corporation focuses its efforts along Jamaica Avenue, Dexter Court and 100th Street. GWDC supports the collective needs of the 325 small- and medium-sized member businesses by providing additional cleaning, security and maintenance services.

With a mere $160,000 budget, GWDC provides twice daily sanitation sweeps and additional advertising, security upgrades, monthly bank days, graffiti removal and vandalism repair. And in just over three years, GWDC has greatly improved the Woodhaven retail environment.

The 25-block stretch of Jamaica Avenue that makes up the Woodhaven shopping area is one of the more unique shopping stretches in Queens. Chinese, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Thai and Surinamese restaurants dot the avenue. A rifle range, a funeral home, a tattoo and piercing parlor, a catering hall and a medical center give clue to the array of businesses that call Woodhaven home.

Recently, GWDC has welcomed the addition of Rite Aid, Genovese, McDonald’s and D&D stores to Jamaica Avenue. New lighting, the result of a $300,000 grant from the Queens Borough President’s office, is scheduled to be completed by January 1998, and will lengthen the shopping hours along the retail stretch.

"We’ve made tremendous strides on the avenue," beams GWDC Executive Director Marie Thomson. "In another three or four years, we’ll be as good as, or better than, Steinway Street."