Pierce County businesses received millions and millions from Paycheck Protection Program, data shows
Story has been updated.
Pierce County businesses might have received as much as $1.9 billion in federal loans to keep employees on payrolls.
The federal government released its much anticipated Paycheck Protection Program data this week.
More than 200,000 small businesses in the Pacific Northwest have received nearly $23 billion in PPP funding, the Small Business Administration said.
Pierce County businesses submitted 8,792 applications.
The data set provided by the Small Business Administration did not include exact amounts for larger recipients, only loan ranges of $5 million—$10 million, $2 million—$5 million, $1 million—$ 2 million, $350,000—$1 million, $150,000—$350,000.
Nor did the federal data include names of businesses for recipients of loans of less than $150,000.
According to the smaller-loan data set from SBA, Pierce County received $276,576,084 in smaller, federal loans.
Twelve entities listed in the Tacoma, Puyallup, Lakewood and Gig Harbor areas plus one in Pacific received the maximum amount allowed, $5 million to $10 million in PPP funding.
Paycheck Protection Program
Congress has allotted $719 billion into the Paycheck Protection Program to help businesses stay afloat through the pandemic. The program provides low-interest loans that can become grants if a business follows guidelines like maintaining payrolls or quickly rehiring employees.
The program is intended to encourage businesses to keep people employed.
The award amount is determined by average monthly payroll costs, minus employees who make more than $100,000, according to the application.
The application for the funding states a loan must be used for one or more of the following: payroll costs, costs to continue health care benefits, mortgage interest payments, rent or utility payments, interest payments or refinancing a federal loan.
Local findings
The News Tribune analyzed both data sets.
Most of the applications for Pierce County were from restaurants, with a total of 347 asking for funds. Dental entities came in second with 261 applications.
Real estate entities came in third, most of which applied for smaller loans. The industry’s activities were deemed essential in the state in late March.
Pierce County businesses estimated in the applications that a total of 78,002 jobs would be retained with the funds.
The application asked businesses how many jobs the funds would retain. In Pierce County, 2,034 businesses said none or that section of the application was left blank.
The Top 12
Here is a list of Pierce County businesses that received $5 million to $10 million in Paycheck Protection Program funding, followed by the number of jobs retained. Those businesses with no number listed either reported that zero jobs would be retained or left that part of the application blank.
- TRA-MINW PS (medical imaging group), Tacoma
- The Geneva Foundation (nonprofit), Tacoma
- Manke Lumber Inc. Tacoma, 467
- Korean Women’s Association (nonprofit), Tacoma, 485 (later returned, according to KWA)
- Burkhart Dental Supply, Tacoma, 410
- Bargreen Ellison Inc., Tacoma, 495
- RAM 1971 Inc. (employee stock ownership plan for restaurant group), Lakewood
- Parametrix Inc. (engineering, planning, environmental services, land surveying, and construction services with locations in six states), Puyallup, 431
- Laborworks Industrial Staffing Specialists (temp agency based in Gig Harbor with offices in five states according to LinkedIn profile)
- Cambridge Management Inc. (apartment management company of affordable units with offices in 11 states), Tacoma, 500
- Absher Construction, Puyallup, 320
- Gordon Truck Centers, Pacific, 481
Even though the Korean Women’s Association was approved and received its loan, it learned later that it was too big to qualify.
The act uses a formula to determine the number of full time equivalent employees a business or organization has based on both full time and part time employees.
“All said, we did not receive a penny,” CEO Pete Ansara told The News Tribune on Thursday. “Large non-profits (over 500 employees) were left out in the act.
“We sent every penny back to the bank that we received,” Ansara said.
For more information, check out our database on the top recipients.
This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
