These grants and loans are troublesome:
- Merritt Bakery (see entry for troubled history)
- Bakesale Betty a $241,000 Broadway Corridor loan, as well as $99,000 in redevelopment façade and tenant improvement grants for the Uptown location which closed after two years. (Source)
- Sankofa: $30,200 of unpaid rent was written off in May, 2014 after a termination agreement was executed between the business and the city (Sankofa is not closing, just moving) (source)
- Rising Loafer: $13,700 of unpaid rent was written off in May, 2014 after a termination agreement was executed between the business and the city (source)
- Hibiscus received $50,000 for more than $200,000 in interior improvements. It's closed. (source)
- 2607 Seminary Avenue: This former bank building, which had previously been declared a public nuisance due to its substandard condition, benefited from grants intended to convert the building into a charter high school. Extensive interior and exterior work included a seismic retrofit, electrical, plumbing, paint, awnings, doors, windows and more. Interior work cost $169,500 with $45,000 reimbursed by a tenant improvement grant, and exterior upgrades cost $129,500 including $35,000 from a redevelopment façade improvement grant and another $30,000 in federal funds. The building was for a time the home of East Oakland Leadership Academy High, but the Oakland Unified School District and the Alameda County Office of Education took actions to terminate the school's charter for a variety of reasons, and the school closed at the end of the 2012-2013 school year. East Oakland Leadership Academy continues to operate a K-8 school across the street at 2614 Seminary. (source)
- Noble Cafe, the allegedly carbon neutral cafe went out of business after being loaned some money. (how much?)
- Nedir Bey, former disciple of Your Black Muslim Bakery, received a whopping $1.5 million (1.1 depending on the source) of city money in 1996 only a year after serving a sentence for felony false imprisonment. The health care company he started-E.M. Health Services- failed and the money was never repaid. (source and source)
Some of the groups the City has loaned money to are visible here (2012) and here (2014). These show how much $$ is still owed.
