Start a Business in BV

City of Buena Vista Resources

Resources Provided by the City of Buena Vista

• Steps to Starting a Small Business in Buena Vista

• Buena Vista Forms & Permits

Local & Regional Programs

Funding Availble from the City of Buena Vista & Our Region

• Facade Grant Program – The City of Buena Vista offers a façade grant program for exterior renovations to commercial properties in the mixed-use zoning district downtown. Grants are reviewed and administered by the Economic Development Authority of the City of Buena Vista. Grants are available to building owners or businesses who are operating out of the facility, with owner’s permission to renovate the facility. The grants are based on a 50% rebate on the amount of the renovation up to a total grant of $7,500. Grants will be administered until funding for the year is depleted; Funding cycles start on July 1 of each year.

• Revolving Loan Fund – The City of Buena Vista manages a revolving loan program for small businesses to provide needed capital for business start-up and improvements. Loans are provided with funding received through USDA Rural Development. Applications are reviewed by committee. Maximum loan award is $15,000 at 3% interest over three years.

• Business Planning – The City of Buena Vista partners with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to offer a range of business strategy and startup assistance. The SBDC offers classes locally and regionally, as well as one-on-one meetings in Buena Vista. Check out their website: https://www.valleysbdc.org/.

• Opportunity Zone – The entire City of Buena Vista is a designated Opportunity Zone. For more information on Opportunity Zones, see https://www.dhcd.virginia.gov/opportunity-zones-oz.

• Tourism Zone – Buena Vista’s downtown is designated as a Tourism Zone, which provides local business license and real estate tax incentives as well as qualifying projects for the Virginia Tourism Corporation’s Tourism Development Financing program. See https://www.vatc.org/tourismzones/ and https://www.vatc.org/tdfp/.

• Staunton Creative Community Fund. The reality of entrepreneurship is that we can’t do it all on our own. SCCF wants to be a part of your support network and get you plugged in to our network. Whether it's getting your idea off the ground, exploring ways to scale and expand your business, or finding the best funding option, SCCF is here to guide you through that process.

• Small Business Development Center. The Mission of the SV SBDC is to advise, train, and inform small businesses to help them achieve success. We are one of 29 centers across Virginia providing professional business advice, training, and information resources to help grow and strengthen local businesses. The Virginia SBDC Network is the most exte

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For more information on each of these, contact the Tom Roberts, Director of Community & Economic Development, at troberts@bvcity.org.

State Programs

State of Virginia Programs

The Commonwealth of Virginia continues its trend as one of the best states for business and offers the following incentives to businesses looking at conducting business in the state.

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• Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund is a discretionary incentive available to the Governor to secure a business location or expansion project in Virginia. Grants are awarded to localities on a local matching basis with the expectation that the grant will result in a favorable location decision for the Commonwealth.

• Virginia Investment Partnership Grant is a discretionary performance incentive designed to encourage continued capital investment by Virginia companies, which result in added capacity, modernization, increased productivity, or the creation, development, and utilization of advanced technology. Virginia values its existing businesses and enacts grants to support their success.

• Virginia Jobs Investment Program is an incentive program offering customized recruiting and training assistance to companies that create new jobs or experience technological change. The program is designed to reduce human resource development cost by providing direct funding to new and expanding companies that meet program qualifications.

• Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund invests in agricultural industries through strategic grants made to businesses that add value to Virginia-grown agricultural and forestal products.

• Virginia is For Entrepreneurs. Virginia is for Entrepreneurs connects entrepreneurs seeking financing with investors looking for opportunities and support resources for entrepreneurs.

• Virginia Community Capital. VCC was established in 2006 by a group of bipartisan Virginia legislators. Seeded with a $15 million state-backed seed loan, our mission was to create a business model to attract resources of national, state, and local social investors to make a difference in underserved markets around Virginia. Since our founding – growing and partnering with others along the way – we have turned this original investment into more than $900 million in statewide impact. Learn more about the VCC story.

• Opportunity Virginia. Opportunity Virginia strives to encourage and enable positive community impact investments by ensuring fair and equitable access to resources, facilitating productive connections between investors, project sponsors, and communities via an inclusive marketplace, and maintaining a pulse on socio-economic impact in Opportunity Zones throughout the Commonwealth.

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