$1 billion in COVID aid went to Pierce County businesses. Here’s who got a piece of it
Pierce County businesses received more than $1 billion this year via the Paycheck Protection Program meant to help keep people employed during the pandemic, according to a review by The News Tribune.
Information released by the U.S. Small Business Administration on Nov. 30 was the first complete data set made available on the program that included exact amounts of money allocated. Previously, entities that received aid were listed by monetary ranges for amounts of $350,000 up to $10 million. The earlier released federal data also didn’t include names of businesses for recipients of loans of less than $150,000.
Nearly 8,000 Pierce County businesses netted more than $289 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans for amounts under $150,000, according to the data released by the U.S. Small Business Administration in November.
All told, $1,142,239,299.06 was distributed in Pierce County via 9,384 loans.
The program, created to encourage businesses to retain workers during the coronavirus pandemic, distributed $349 billion nationwide in a matter of a few days in April. The total ultimately rose to $523 billion to 5.2 million borrowers nationwide.
A total of 78,450 jobs were reported by Pierce County businesses applying for loans, with 2,398 of recipients reporting zero or nothing in terms of jobs potentially saved.
The largest PPP loan, $10 million, was received by Parametrix, Inc. in Puyallup, an engineering, planning and environmental consulting service.
The smallest, $228, was sent to an independent contractor listed as a holding company in Lakebay on the Key Peninsula.
A total of 7,945 small loans were doled out from the program’s inception in April through early August — about 85 percent of the county’s total.
Just under a third of those loans — 2,475 — landed in the $10,000 to $25,000 range.
More than 1,600 loans were for $25,000 to $50,000 and 1,475 between $50,000 and $100,000. Another 1,700 fell under the $10,000 mark.
RESTAURANTS AND HOSPITALITY
Pierce County restaurants, bars, caterers and other food service businesses, excluding grocery stores, received more than $84 million through PPP. Nearly half of that money landed in the accounts of national chain restaurants or franchises, regional chains or restaurants with several locations of the same concept, according to a News Tribune analysis of the data.
A franchise is often owned by a local business person or investment group and pays fees to use the brand name of the corporate entity. Most locations of McDonald’s, KFC and Denny’s, for example, are franchised; Subway has always been a fully franchised concept. All of these brand names are examples of PPP recipients in Pierce County.
In total, 657 restaurant and food service entities secured PPP loans. Of those, 547 loans were under $150,000, accounting for $26.68 million.
This emergency funding did not save every Pierce County restaurant. The Swiss Pub, Pacific Grill and its catering arm, El Borracho and Bonney Lake Tavern claimed funds but have since closed. As The News Tribune reported in July, Tacoma Baking Co., mired in controversy over pay disputes with employees and its equipment loan, received a loan even after it had closed permanently.
More than 70 entities under the hospitality (lodging, event planning) and hotel business codes received a total of $5.6 million in PPP loans.
One of those, Hospitality Development Group, owners of a hotel converted to a temporary COVID-19 care site on Hosmer Street, received $117,800 in a PPP loan approved April 14 for the same site with 20 jobs listed.
The site that month also became a temporary care center for COVID-19 patients who needed to isolate, and also has received funding in FEMA disbursement.
The temporary care site has been given $7,805,000 on lease and service contracts through Nov. 30, according to information received from Pierce County on Wednesday in response to questions. FEMA is covering 75 percent of the costs.
December costs won’t be available until the accounting year ends.
The average length of stay for the 281 guests that have stayed in the Temporary Care Center is 9 days.
The LLC also received a combined $291,700 for two other properties in the area.
REAL ESTATE
In March, the real estate industry faced what it feared would be a staggeringly bleak future with the governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy Order.”
More than 200 offices of real estate agents and brokers in Pierce County received $8,063,621.40 in PPP loans, while real estate appraisers received $394,681.32.
In the following months, the market set new records, with Pierce County running extremely low in home inventories and the median home sale price setting a record in November.
The percentage of closed sales in November increased 27.82% over 2019.
A review by the Puget Sound Business Journal noted that the largest PPP loan given to any real estate entity in the state was received by Tacoma-based Cambridge Management, which oversees a national portfolio of affordable housing communities. It was approved for a $5.3 million loan.
More information is available at sba.gov/coronavirus.
This story was originally published December 27, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
