Governor Kathy Hochul has announced changes to New York’s $800 million COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program that will enable more small businesses to apply for funding. Starting now, businesses with revenues up to $2.5 million can apply for grants, up from the previous threshold of $500,000. Additionally, the limitation for businesses that received Federal Paycheck Protection Program loans has been increased from $100,000 to $250,000.
Launched in June, the program initially focused on small and micro-businesses across New York State, which were largely left out of federal business recovery initiatives. To date, more than $48 million has been awarded to over 2,380 small and micro-businesses in all ten regions of the state.
Empire State Development and Lendistry, the minority-led Community Development Financial Institution that was selected to administer the program, will continue to accept and review applications. All current applicants – those who have not finished their applications, have not uploaded documents or have incomplete documentation – are encouraged to finalize their applications as soon as possible. Previously ineligible small businesses may start applying now, and those applications will start being processed on Wednesday, September 8th.
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