City officials and business leaders in the Peachtree Corners area are watching the unfolding of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and its sprawling variety of aid programs with great interest. They’re encouraged by what seems to be more a nod to small businesses in the latest permutation, as well as an industry-specific approach — the addition of an aid program targeted to restaurants.

For City Hall itself, top of mind has been making progress toward a grant program that would potentially help local business as well as struggling non-profits and individuals.

That grant money comes in the amount of $9 million, said City Manager Brian Johnson. Half of that arrived recently, he said, while the other 50% will show up in city coffers in one year. It’s part of $130 billion going out to local government entities nationwide, and the money has to be exhausted by three summers from now.

“The council’s intent is to spend it as quickly as we can responsibly spend it,” Johnson said, “and help those who have been harmed. We don’t want to sit on this until 2024.”

There are four general sets of federal guidelines under which grant program cash can be allocated, he explained.

The first is by far the most overarching, specifying assistance to households, small businesses and non-profits, and to such impacted industries as travel, tourism and hospitality. A second would reimburse the city for revenue lost due to the pandemic. A third set of guidelines is targeted to water, sewer and broadband improvements, and the last provides for premium pay for those doing essential work during the pandemic.

Johnson said a number of factors will be weighed in the vetting process, such as consideration of those who have gotten aid previously under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) and Economic Aid acts. Another is how and whether the money might be aimed at specific industries.

“It’s a great problem to have, but it’s still a challenge,” he said. “How do we make $9 million useable in the most productive way possible?”

To that end, Johnson and other staffers distilled the general guidelines down into several “conceptual” areas. His May 11 proposal to the council sketched out possible uses, including operating and capital grants to non-profits and, within that bucket, emergency assistance to individuals and families.
Business assistance programs also emerged as a touchstone with operating grants and property improvement comprising that area. Expansion of broadband infrastructure to underserved areas of the city also made the conceptual cut, as did potential reimbursement to the city for revenue lost to COVID.

A “shop local” incentive program and money for nuisance abatement (such as helping faltering businesses bring their properties back up to code) and utility assistance rounded out the conceptual model.

After council approval of a set of more detailed recommendations, staffers planned to draw up criteria and create an application period and process.

Johnson said that, under the earlier CARES act money that they parceled out, small businesses could use the grants however they saw fit. He said under ARPA there’s been talk about attaching more conditions, as opposed to “giving it to someone to put in their bank-account.” That harks back to the council’s stated goal of getting the money in circulation “to lubricate the economy.”

Business groups are cheering the help expected to arrive through the city grants, plus several other channels of the plan. At least one hopes that past hiccups can be ironed out.

“People are flat confused,” said Peachtree Corners Business Association (PCBA) President Lisa Proctor, the owner of a recruiting agency. “If you’re large enough to have good tax advisors or someone who’s focusing on the details, you’re in good shape. If you’re a small business having to navigate it yourself, it’s a problem.”

She cites, as an example, Small Business Administration (SBA) initiatives that have included a loan program, a grant program and a disaster assistance provision, making it difficult for businesses applying to determine what programs they might qualify for.

Proctor said that confusing verbiage and short application windows have created consternation. “I don’t think the concepts of the programs are bad. It’s the implementation,” she said. “Do the funds go to where they need to?”

One new concept within the ARPA and its programs under the SBA umbrella is the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which gets a nod of approval from Cally D’Angelo, Senior Director of Membership Services and Small Business Initiatives for the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. She said carveouts like that are necessary if the industry is to recover and rebuild.

“I think is very helpful. Money is flowing,” she said, following the closure of the application period May 24. She added that users are not required to repay the money as long as it’s used in eligible ways by March of 2023.

She also points out that the program casts a wider net than many might think, not only incorporating aid for traditional sit-down restaurants, but also food trucks, bakeries, caterers, brewpubs and wineries. $28.6 billion has been set aside from the program to help restaurants meet payroll and other expenses.
The PCBA’s Proctor said their numbers show around 50 restaurants within three miles of Peachtree Corners Town Center, and that several have closed.

Smaller businesses are also getting a chance to move toward the head of the line, said D’Angelo. She said one example concerns the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program (EIDL), which now incorporates a targeted EIDL option for businesses in low-income areas. Those smallest and hardest hit of them can get an extra $5,000 that doesn’t have to be repaid.

The revamp of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which gained more than $7 billion in additional funding, is another. A special two-week period for PPP applications earlier this year was designed for businesses of 20 employees or fewer, she said. She added that a mid-May report showed that the average loan size of PPP loan help packages — typically those are proportional to the size of the business applying for the aid — had decreased by about half, spotlighting the more targeted small business approach.

In addition, the PPP program’s eligibility criteria were expanded to include some non-profit organizations previously excluded.

To be sure, not only businesses are getting a helping hand. ARPA includes a broad menu of help programs for the public health workforce, schools, individuals and individual families.

Proctor’s concern remains that the dollars will go to the entities most needful, given past confusion and such missteps as when the first round of Paycheck Protection funding went, in large measure, to what some regarded as an inordinate percentage of large businesses and publicly traded corporations. “Based on the first round of what the SBA did, I am cautiously not optimistic,” she commented.

D’Angelo takes a more upbeat tone, saying that to put it in perspective, the SBA processed what’s usually more than 14 years’ worth of loans in 14 days at the outset of the pandemic, and that the agency has been adaptable. On a more local scale, she said that the Chamber and others have come together to form a small business resource group to provide information, webinars and feedback.

“Over time, responding to a crisis, you adapt to what the needs are. That’s how it’s supposed to work, right?” said D’Angelo.