Over 70,000 Small Businesses Have Applied for New York’s $800 Million Grant Program

Over 70,000 Small Businesses Have Applied for New York’s $800 Million Grant Program

By Chelsea Diana, Biz Journals

Over 70,000 small businesses across New York state have applied for up to $50,000 in grants as part of New York’s $800 million small business recovery grant program.

Pravina Raghavan — executive vice president of the Division of Small Business and Technology Development for Empire State Development — said ESD has so far selected and notified more than 10,000 small businesses that they are through the application and verification process.

She said during an ESD board meeting on Thursday that the state is making sure tax returns are correct and doing other validation checks to minimize fraud and check for duplicate applications.

“We’ve been getting applications throughout the state in every county,” Raghavan said. “New York City isn’t over indexing, they’re getting their proportionate geographic share. We’ve had applications from western New York, Mohawk Valley, the North Country and central New York. Every region and every county.”

Grants for small businesses will start at $5,000 and go up to $50,000. They will be calculated based on annual gross receipts for 2019.

The grant money must go toward reimbursable pandemic-related expenses incurred between March 1, 2020, and April 1, 2021. That includes payroll, rent or mortgage payments, taxes and utilities.

Qualified businesses must have gross receipts of between $25,000 and $500,000 a year for 2019 or 2020 and demonstrate at least 25% loss in annual gross receipts year over year.

Raghavan said the state has received applications so far from all types of businesses.

“From personal care services to child care, street vendors, accountants and legal firms, manufacturing, it’s been companies, all types of businesses,” Raghavan said. “It was industry-neutral.”

Grant program still open
Applications for the program will be open for a few more weeks, she said.

The state said more than 330,000 small businesses are potentially eligible for this program, including 57% of the state’s certified minority- and women-owned businesses. Priority for the program is being given to socially and economically disadvantaged business owners.

Businesses that received some federal assistance may be eligible, including those that received Paycheck Protection Program loans of $100,000 or less and Shuttered Venue Operators Grants of $150,000 or less.

The program is not open for businesses that received Restaurant Revitalization grants.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.