Centre County hospitality businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and related shutdowns will be able to apply for a new round of grant funding starting next week.
Applications will open Monday for grants from Centre County’s $1.8 million share of Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Recovery Program. In February, Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law the bill creating the $145 million program to provide relief grants for lodging, food and drink establishments through block grants to counties based on population.
“We know that businesses in our county continue to experience loss from the pandemic,” Centre County Board of Commissioners Chair Michael Pipe said in a statement. “This grant program provides critical funding to our hospitality industry and we hope as many businesses as possible apply.”
The first application window will be open from March 15-28 at the Community Giving Foundation website. Three subsequent, two-week windows will open through June 15 unless funds are exhausted.
Required to administer the program through a Certified Economic Development Organization, Centre County contracted SEDA-COG to administer the grant program for a cost not to exceed $58,855.
SEDA-COG, which is administering the program for 10 of its 11 member counties, is working with contractor Harry Mathias and the Community Giving Foundation on the application process.
Grants will be awarded in $5,000 increments up to $50,000 for hospitality industry businesses that experienced a reduction in gross receipts of at least 25% from 2019 to 2020. Mathias said during Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting that the legislation includes multiple ways businesses can calculate revenue losses.
According to CHIRP guidelines, businesses are eligible if they:
– Have a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) designation within the Accommodation subsector (721) or Food Services and Drinking Places subsector (722) and where accommodations, food or drink is served to or provided for the public, with or without charge;
– Have fewer than 300 full-time equivalent employees;
– Have a maximum tangible net worth of not more than $15 million; and
– Remain in operation and do not intend to permanently cease operations within one year of the date of application.
Priority will be given to businesses that have not already received a state or federal loan or grant and that were subject to closure by Wolf’s emergency declaration, or if they demonstrate revenue reductions of 50% or more in 2020 compared to 2019.
Grants will be awarded to eligible businesses based on a calculation of expenses including payroll, rent or mortgage and utilities, minus any previous COVID relief grant or loan amount already used for the same expenses, such as the Paycheck Protection Program.
“The commissioners would like to get this money out into the community as soon as possible and SEDA-COG is working hard to ensure we can do that,” Commissioner Mark Higgins said on Tuesday. “The program is set up to try to incentivize the smaller of our businesses in these fields. Hopefully pretty much everyone who applies can at least get some money in a grant.”
After the application window closes on March 28, Mathias and SEDA-COG will review applications and create a draft grant list that will be shared with the county commissioners on April 5 for further eligibility review. Approval letters will be sent to grantees on April 12.
If funds remain available, additional application windows will be open March 29-April 18, April 19-May 16 and May 17-June 15, Mathias said.
A full listing of eligibility requirements and prioritization guidelines, will be available at www.csgiving.org.
“We are honored to be able to further assist our counties in this way. We know that the economic effects of the pandemic have crippled our local hospitality industry, so we trust this will alleviate some of that pain,” SEDA-COG assistant executive director Mike Fisher said in a statement. “This pandemic has left gaping holes of need and we are here to help our communities and businesses meet those needs.”
