CEDAR PARK, Texas (KXAN) — At Friday’s Cedar Park City Council meeting, the City of Cedar Park’s Office of Economic Development, along with the Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce, reported it had issued 63 grants totaling $200,000 to small businesses.
The 63 grants are part of the city’s Small Business Assistance Program the council authorized at its April 9 meeting, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are excited to have been able to help our small businesses through this crisis. Many of them are struggling, and the grants help supplement some the Federal, State and other assistance they’ve applied for,” said Mayor Corbin Van Arsdale. “We are grateful for all that our small businesses have done and are continuing to do for our community. This is a tough time, and they are doing a tremendous job of weathering this storm. We are glad to help them through it.”
The program aims to provide small businesses in Cedar Park with financial assistance in response to COVID-19. Under the program, eligible small businesses can apply to grants up to $5,000 with 0% interest loans up to $10,000.
Cedar Park small businesses must meet the following criteria to apply:
- Must be located within the corporate limits of Cedar Park
- Must not be a home-based business or sole proprietor, and cannot be a non-profit organization
- Must have been in business for at least 12 months
- Must employ fewer than 25 full-time or full-time equivalent employees
- Has endured a 25% or greater reduction in sales after COVID-19 pandemic
- Has applied for a Small Business Administration (“SBA”) loan or other type of loan from a certified financial institution
The program was created and administered by the Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce. The 72 applicants were reviewed by a committee comprised of Cedar Park Director of Economic Development Ben White, Economic Development Corporation President Eric Boyce and Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tony Moline.
The committee decided to maximize funding to the businesses that applied. They issued no loans but instead awarded grants to 63 qualifyed small businesses.
The grants ranged from $1,000 to $5,000, with the majority of each grant over $3,000, exhausting the program’s authorized $200,000 budget.
“Awarding grants was the way for us to assist all of the qualifying businesses, so that they could focus on what’s most important: staying in business and rebounding from the economic setback caused by this pandemic,” said Chamber President and CEO Tony Moline.
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