The Ulster County Development Corporation (UCDC), through its Telecommunications Fund, provides financial assistance in the form of loans to Ulster County municipalities, real estate developers, and facility owners to make investments in existing buildings with limited use potential due to a lack of current telecommunications infrastructure or high-speed Internet access. The loans support conducting demand studies, feasibility and cost analysis, marketing studies, the upgrading of facility wiring, and the extension of telecommunications infrastructure.
The Telecommunications Fund was capitalized through a $500,000 grant from the Empire State Development Corporation and the support of Senator John Bonacic. The maximum loan amount is $100,000 or 25% of the total project cost (smaller projects may receive special consideration for a larger percentage portion of the total project cost). Terms of the loans are at a fixed interest rate of one-half (½) of the Prime Rate (as published in the Wall Street Journal) and the length of the loans run from 3 to 7 years. All projects must have the potential to create and/or retain jobs.
A basic goal of the Telecommunications Fund is to support projects that lead to the retention or creation of private sector jobs and leverage public and private investment in municipalities of Ulster County. This will be accomplished by assisting businesses fill the gap between owner equity and available private sector capital, by encouraging new and imaginative uses of under-utilized or deteriorated properties that will support economic growth and retention efforts, and participating with other public and private programs to enhance the public benefits involved with job creation and tax base enhancement.
Examples of eligible projects include: cataloging of telecommunications infrastructure, determining commercial demand of high-speed Internet access, conducting feasibility or cost analysis, reconstruction of existing site telecommunications infrastructure, improvement or alteration to, in whole or in part, a facility to support electronic commerce, technological research or for other industrial/commercial use.
For additional information visit www.ulsterny.com or call Peter Gallagher, Director of Business Development, at 845-338-8840.
