San Diego
The San Diego Minority Business Development Center, closed last month when federal grant money dried up, will reopen Monday, Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego) announced Thursday.
Lowery said he was able to convince a reluctant federal agency, the Minority Business Development Agency, to release $350,000 in grant funds that had been withheld since April 1.
Operated by San Diego State University, the 4-year-old development center at 6363 Alvarado Court helps minority-run businesses secure financing and develop business plans. The center shut down during the second week of April, after attempting to survive on San Diego State University Foundation funds for two weeks. The foundation will be reimbursed, Lowery said.
Despite the center’s rating as the best of more than 100 programs nationwide and a federal review describing it as “exemplary,” the agency had been holding up the grant money over minor questions that had already been resolved by center officials, Lowery said.
“In a word, it was bureaucratic incompetence,” he said.
Lowery said that a similar situation is developing in Los Angeles, where San Diego State operates another center, but he is hoping to head off another shutdown.
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