PHOENIX — Restaurants and shops hit hard by the pandemic may be eligible for a grant from the city of Phoenix.
"Businesses are using this to make payroll, to find new supply chains because their current supply chains have been disrupted," said Gretchen Wolfe, special projects administrator with the city.
"So at the end of the day it would be awesome if all these businesses struggling have enough money to hold on until things are back to normal," she added.
The grants range between $3,000 and $5,000 depending on the size of the business.
"It helped me big time with payroll. As you know, minimum wage has gone up high" said Albert Bahram, owner of Crazy Jim's in downtown Phoenix.
According to Bahram, many customers have started returning since the pandemic. However, his business did take a hit in 2020 and 2021.
"And thanks to the city I was able to pay that, thankfully, and business is getting back, surely but slowly," he added.
The money for the grant program was approved by city leaders to help businesses that struggled.
According to the city, they've spent about $4.2 million from the American Rescue Plan to help more than 600 companies.
However, they still have $3 million left.
"The grants are just one of the tools the city has to help small businesses," Wolfe said.
"Even though a lot of areas have recovered from Covid, there are still pockets of some industries that are still hurting," she added.
To be eligible for the grants, companies have to have 25 employees or less, have their revenue down 25% due to Covid, have less than $3 million in gross sales and have been operating in Phoenix for at least a year.
Applications will be accepted through April 15 or until money runs out.
For information on how to apply, click here.
