The RRF could provide local restaurant and bar owners with thousands of dollars in relief.
Updated: May 11, 2021
There is some very good news for restaurant owners still feeling the pain of last year’s forced shutdowns.
The SBA has announced information about the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) that is expected to become available next week.
Pam Hoke, a CARES team consultant at Tarleton State University, told Beneath the Surface News that the RRF is based on a restaurant’s gross receipts, and is a grant, which means it does not have to be paid back like a loan.
The formula for calculating the potential grant is simple and could mean big money for local restaurants.
Here’s how it works:
Gross Receipts from 2019 tax form $500,000
Gross Receipts from 2020 tax form $300,000
Subtotal $200,000
Less Amount of PPP 1 $30,000
Less Amount of PPP 2 $20,000
Total amount of Grant $150,000
“This is available to any business in which the public assembles for the primary purpose of being served food or drink,” Hoke said. “It includes restaurants, caterers, food trucks, snack bars, bars, lounges, bakeries, breweries, wineries and tasting rooms.”
Publicly traded companies, those who own or operate more than 20 locations and businesses that are permanently closed are not eligible to receive the funding.
“This relief is intended for the smaller, local restaurant or bar. They were some of the ones hardest hit with closures and limited capacity for such a long time and now there is help for them,” Hoke said. “They can use the funds in so many ways within normal operation costs.”
The minimum award is $1,000 and the maximum is $5,000,000.
There is a 21-day priority period for small business concerns that is at least 51% owned by women, veterans or socially and economically disadvantaged.
“The fund is $28.6 billion to be awarded, so they need to be ready when the application process starts,” Hoke said. “It is a first-come basis for both the priority period and when it opens up to everyone.”
For more information, call America’s Small Business Development Center at Tarleton at 254-968-0558 or 254-968-9697.
