Small Business

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced on Friday it will extend deferment periods for all disaster loans, including those part of the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, until 2022.

The American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9-trillion economic relief package signed into law on Thursday by President Joe Biden, is slated to provide billions of dollars in aid to small businesses around the country.

The North Central Massachusetts Development Corp. announced Tuesday it has approved two loans amounting in $30,000 to go towards 290 Auto Body Inc. and American Transport, both in Worcester.

Brew City Grill & Brew House on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester will reopen one week from Friday, on March 19, following a temporary closure which began in January, spurred by difficulties in running the restaurant under heightened coronavirus restrictions.

Confidence among Massachusetts employers continued to build in February, and has risen in seven of the last nine months.

The state is more than a month late in notifying businesses how much they will owe in unemployment insurance contributions for the first three months of the year, and the Department of Unemployment Insurance told employers last week it was prepared to wait until the end of March to see if the Legislature will intervene.

Valley Florist and Greenhouse in East Templeton has received a $10,000 small business loan from the North Central Massachusetts Development Corp., the Fitchburg organization announced Friday.

As long as current plans stay on track, D’Errico’s Market in Worcester will expand out of Worcester and into Leominster this summer, Owner Rodrigo DeOliveira said on Thursday. 

Gov. Charlie Baker took a major step forward Thursday to reopen parts of the economy that have been shuttered, in some cases, since the beginning of the pandemic.

The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce has asked City Manager Edward Augustus to consider reopening bar dining in a Feb. 17 letter from Alex Guardiola, chamber director of government affairs and public policy.