Top 20 Restaurant Revitalization Fund awardees in Central Massachusetts
July 15, 2021
Over 300 Central Mass. restaurants approved for $65.6M in COVID relief
Photo | Nathan Fiske
File - The Sole Proprietor's kitchen
By Katherine Hamilton
Before the program closed earlier in July, 306 Central Massachusetts businesses received more than $65.6 million in coronavirus federal aid from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, according to data from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Massachusetts was approved for $993 million of the fund in total, divided among over 2,500 businesses, which was the sixth highest sum in the country, according to the SBA data.
In Central Massachusetts, the largest grant was $2.5 million, and went to Namee Enterprises, Inc. in Natick, which owns Japanese chain Minado Restaurant. Other top-funded businesses, which all received more than $1 million, include Princeton wedding venue Harrington Farm, Worcester restaurant Sole Proprietor, and the Acton corporation owning the Paper Store.
Worcester’s nearly $13 million topped the chart for the Central Massachusetts community with the most funding, followed by Natick and Marlborough, both around $4.6 million.
The Massachusetts chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business said 41% of Massachusetts business owners applied for an RRF grant and 56% of those who applied received funds.
Businesses are not required to repay the funding, but must spend it before March 2023, according to the SBA.
The fund was established as part of the American Rescue Plan Act in March to provide emergency assistance for restaurants, bars, breweries, and inns impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The Small Business Association decided funding amounts based upon each business’s pandemic-related revenue loss up to $10 million.
Before the program closed, RRF doled out $70 billion nationwide to restaurants.
The SBA included three priority groups for deciding on funding: businesses owned by women, veterans, or socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.
Of the Central Massachusetts businesses receiving funding: 141 are woman-owned, 17 are veteran-owned, and 91 are socio-economically disadvantaged. None of the top five Central Mass. businesses with the most funding fell into these priority groups, except for Hopduvel Enterprises Inc. in Worcester, which is considered to be socio-economically disadvantaged. Hopduvel Enterprises runs the downtown restaurant Armsby Abbey.
SBA said 3% of the RRF was devoted to HUBZones or historically underutilized business zones. In Central Massachusetts, 29 businesses were said to be located in HUBZones, making up about $5.2 million, or 8%, of all Central Massachusetts funding.
Although COVID-19 cases are decreasing, restaurants still face new challenges, according to NFIB. More than half of Massachusetts owners reported supply chain disruption having a worse impact on their small business than it was three months ago, and 40% are currently experiencing significant or moderate staffing shortage.
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Anonymous
July 17, 2021
Could you please post the entire list of MA recipients?
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