City of San Antonio officials said June 7 they have distributed more than $2.4 million in COVID-19 and construction recovery grants to 91 local businesses.
What happened?
The city launched the program in January with an aim of boosting eligible small businesses that have struggled financially in neighborhoods impacted by significant road construction projects.
A news release states applicants who have been awarded a recovery grant were already struggling with economic fallout from the pandemic.
According to city officials, the recovery grant program has received more than 200 applications across 15 eligible construction corridors.
As of June 7, grants had been awarded to 91 businesses, with the average grant being $26,856.
Another 69 applicants were denied, 58 of which were rejected because of their inability to demonstrate a $10,000 net revenue reduction from 2021 to 2022, as set out in the qualification parameters.
Local officials said other reasons for application denial included failure to meet the minimum revenue requirement, ineligible business establishment date, location outside of geographic limits and failure to provide required documents.
According to city officials, as of June 7, one application was withdrawn by the applicant, two more applications are pending funding, and an additional 58 applications remain suspended due to documented inconsistencies in the information provided.
What's next?
The San Antonio organization LiftFund, which is administering the grants, encourages applicants to continue submitting clarifying documents as any received by June 23 will be considered during final evaluations, city officials said.
What they're saying
Local small-business owners, such as Sean Wen of Curry Boys BBQ, which was awarded $35,000, told city officials the grant program is helpful as his eatery has been affected by a lengthy road project on North St. Mary’s Street.
“The pandemic, coupled with the major construction, completely hampered our business and sales, and made it super difficult for our guests to access our space and find parking during construction, while the pandemic causes many guests to shy away from dining out,” Wen said in a statement. “This grant will be such a major help to us as we will use this to pay for rent, triple nets, payroll and will also allow us to hire more staff to ensure smoother operations.”
