REDC - Renaissance Economic Development Corporation

Based in New York City's Chinatown, Renaissance Economic Development Corporation (Renaissance) has provided direct financing and technical assistance to low-income, minority, women and immigrant entrepreneurs and small business owners since 1997. Renaissance focuses its activities on Chinatown and the adjacent neighborhood of the Lower East Side, but it also serves other low-income, immigrant neighborhoods where the barriers of language, culture and conventional loan underwriting have stymied the growth of small businesses. Its parent organization, Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), has served the immigrant communities of Chinatown, the Lower East Side and Flushing, among others, since 1974. Renaissance has a complementary mission, specializing in serving businesses in its target markets that banks and government programs cannot serve- low-income, start-up, thinly capitalized enterprises whose owners are often hobbled by poor or non-existent English skills and unf amiliarity with the banking system in this country. Renaissance accomplishes its work through targeted technical assistance, one-on-one counseling and affordable, fixed-rate loans.