The City of Harrisonburg is awarding business recovery grants to 78 businesses in the coming days, with an additional round of grant funding with reduced eligibility requirements scheduled to take place in the next few weeks.
Harrisonburg Economic Development recently accepted grant applications from businesses impacted by COVID-19, with funds being provided by federal CARES Act dollars.
Nearly 80 businesses applied for and were eligible for grants that will range from $4,000 to $10,000, depending on the number of employees at each business, with the total allocation reaching $418,700 for this first round of support. This is in addition to $100,000 in business loans that were given to businesses earlier this year, which the city has moved to forgive.
Applicants for the Harrisonburg Business Recovery Grant program must have been open on or before Jan. 1, 2020; had an annual revenue of between $25,000 and $5 million; have between one and 100 employees; and have experienced a 25 percent or more reduction in revenue this year due to COVID-19.
The next round of funding will include reduced eligibility requirements in order to make funding available for some businesses that were not able to apply for the first round of the program.
“I am so glad City Council appropriated CARES Act funding to help our small businesses negatively impacted by COVID-19,” Harrisonburg Economic Development Director Brian Shull said. “It is our hope that these cash grants will help these businesses cover a portion of the expenses they have incurred because of the pandemic. We need to help our businesses hang on now so they are here for us all in the long-term.”
More information regarding future grants, and when the next application period will open, will be available in the near future at www.harrisonburgdevelopment.com/news.
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