There are just a couple days left for Peoria area businesses to apply for grants to help them get through the COVID-19 crisis.
The Downstate Business Stabilization Program offers up to $25,000 to businesses with 50 or fewer employees that have been open under the same ownership for at least three years.
“For businesses that are still open and kind of hanging on, it allows them to keep open,” said Chris Setti, CEO of the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council. “For businesses that have already closed, it’s to help them to reopen when this is all over. Those are kind of the two goals, and to keep people employed or re-employ them when you reopen.”
Setti said the grants cover two months of working capital, including things like payroll, rent, utilities, and inventory holding fees. He said it does not apply to things like building expansions or new equipment purchases.
Setti said there’s another caveat:
“Just due to the nature of the funds, businesses in the city of Peoria and the city of Pekin cannot apply,” he said. “This has to do with the community development block grant monies that come to the state that, by law, are not allowed to be used in communities that already get that kind of distribution directly.”
Qualifying businesses in Peoria, Woodford, and Mason counties have until 5 p.m. Friday, April 10 to apply. That deadline is end-of-business Monday, April 13 for businesses in Tazewell County.
Setti said there are other programs businesses in the region, including Peoria and Pekin, can utilize.
Under the Illinois Emergency Business Loan Program, he said, businesses can borrow up to $50,000 on a five year loan at market interest rates. Payments are deferred for the first six months.
At the federal level, Setti said, the Small Business Administration offers two programs: the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and the Paycheck Protection Program.
“That’s for any business that has 500 or fewer employees, so that [covers] almost every business in the region, other than the larger hospitals and Caterpillar and large companies like that,” Setti said.
He said the most popular program has probably been the Paycheck Protection Program, which forgives loans to businesses if they use that money to keep employees on the payroll for eight weeks.
Setti said the popularity of the program, which is processed by local banks, overwhelmed the application process early. But once the ball gets rolling, he said, payments to businesses should be relatively swift.
“As the days go on, I think we’ll see those things loosen up a little bit,” he said. “People probably will be better off waiting three or four days and they still get service just as quickly as if they were first in line.”
More information on all COVID-19 related businesses assistance programs can be found at gpcovid.org.
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