Asheville launches $14 million grant program for storm-hit businesses

Small businesses across Asheville will soon be able to apply for grants of up to $75,000 as the city tries to push more disaster aid onto Main Street and into neighborhood corridors still recovering from Helene. The new Asheville Recovers Together program is aimed at for-profit businesses inside Asheville city limits that were operating before Sept. 27, 2024, and can document unmet Helene-related financial losses.

ArtsAVL says applications open June 15 and close July 14, giving eligible owners a little less than a month to get their paperwork in. The grants are designed to help businesses recover, rebuild and retain jobs, a critical point in a city where storm damage, lost foot traffic, insurance gaps and delayed repairs have lingered long after the water receded.

The program grew out of Asheville City Council’s Jan. 27 approval of a $15.5 million Small Business Support Program. More than $14 million of that funding will flow through Asheville Recovers Together, which Mountain BizWorks says is supported by Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery money. ArtsAVL, Eagle Market Streets Development Corporation and Mountain BizWorks will administer the program, with additional partners involved in the rollout.

That local structure matters. ArtsAVL has already administered more than $1.4 million in Hurricane Helene arts relief across 26 counties, while Eagle Market Streets has worked in Asheville and Western North Carolina since 1994 with a focus on underserved communities. City and nonprofit leaders are betting that those groups can move faster than a larger, centralized program and reach smaller operators that often struggle to navigate disaster bureaucracy.

The need is clear from the last round of aid. In March 2025, Mountain BizWorks said the Asheville-Buncombe Rebuilding Together Grant Fund awarded $4,447,395 to 390 small businesses out of 844 applications. Those applicants reported $215.6 million in total economic and physical damages, and 454 businesses received no award. The same round documented a loss of 2,146 jobs, while the grants were expected to help retain 2,084 local jobs and support the rehire of 1,527 employees over the following year.

For Asheville’s downtown storefronts, service businesses and neighborhood commercial strips, the new grant round could be the difference between reopening fully, deferring repairs or closing for good. If eligible owners miss the application window, the next chance for direct recovery money may be limited, and the city’s broader rebuilding effort will be harder to translate into stable jobs and occupied storefronts.