Buffalo Grove Small Businesses Receive Relief Funds

Eric DeGrechie
·3 min read

BUFFALO GROVE, IL — Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity announced Thursday that more than $111 million in relief funds have been distributed to businesses – a key milestone to accelerate small business recovery through the Back to Business (B2B) program.

Local Buffalo Grove businesses receiving funds include:

  • BG Cinema, Inc (Buffalo Grove Theater) — $35,000

  • Mobile Music Disc Jockey Service, Inc. — $55,000

  • VNB Corporation — $20,000

Since the program’s first round of grantees last September, 2,913 grants totaling more than $111 million have been provided to small businesses in over 300 cities across the state, with almost eighty percent of awards delivered to businesses in disproportionately impacted communities and hard-hit industries, according to a news release.

Businesses will continue to be notified of their application status throughout the next few weeks until all the funds are exhausted. A list of grantees can be found here.

“The men and women of the General Assembly worked with me to craft the Back to Business program. It’s $250 million in grants to help small businesses rehire staff, cover operating costs, and afford additional customer safety precautions. These are not loans, so businesses getting help won’t owe a cent back to the state,” Pritzker said. “I’m proud to announce that as of today, $111 million of those grants are already out the door, reaching nearly 3,000 businesses in over 300 cities, towns, and communities across Illinois."

In total, the B2B grant program will award $250 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to help small businesses rehire staff, cover operating costs, and afford additional customer safety precautions. Grants will continue to be awarded to applicants on a rolling basis until the full $250 million is allocated. The awarded dollars will range in size from $5,000 to $150,000, based on the losses each business experienced during the pandemic.

The latest wave of B2B grants prioritizes businesses most in need of support due to the pandemic, including hard hit sectors such as hotels, restaurants, arts and cultural organizations, barbershops and salons, dry cleaners, and fitness centers. It also makes allocations for disproportionately impacted areas and businesses who applied for Business Interruption Grants in 2021 but did not receive funding. On average, recipients of B2B grants experienced revenue declines of 41 percent throughout the pandemic, according to the news release.

The breakdown of the grants made thus far includes:

  • 43 percent to businesses which applied to the Business Interruption Grant (BIG) program last year but did not receive funding.

  • 79 percent to businesses in disproportionately impacted areas (DIAs), or low-income zip codes that experienced high rates of COVID-19.

  • 71 percent to hard-hit industries, including restaurants and taverns, hotels, arts organizations, and salons.

Grants have primarily gone to the smallest businesses:

  • 62 percent going to businesses with revenue under $500,000 in 2019

  • 79 percent going to businesses with revenue under $1 million

Of the B2B grants deployed thus far, more than half of grants have gone to businesses owned by people of color. This includes 25 percent of grants to Asian American or Pacific Islander-owned businesses, 17 percent to Black-owned businesses, and 13 percent to Latinx-owned businesses. This builds upon BIG award grants, approximately 40 percent of which were given to businesses owned by people of color.

To ensure B2B grants reach businesses most in need, DCEO launched a community navigator program that leveraged the support of over 100 trusted, local organizations to connect with businesses owned by people of color in hard-hit areas, rural communities, and other hard-to-reach populations.

This article originally appeared on the Buffalo Grove Patch