Loading...
Transmittal - 8/12/2022 DEPARTMENT of ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ERIN MENDENHALL MAYOR LORENA RIFFO-JENSON INTERIM DIRECTOR CITY COUNCIL TRANSMITTAL _______________________ Date Received: ___________ Lisa Schaffer, Chief Administrative Officer Date sent to Council: ___________ __________________________________________________________________ TO: Salt Lake City Council DATE: 8/12/2022 Dan Dugan, Chair FROM: Lorena Riffo Jenson, Interim Director, Department of Economic Development SUBJECT: Emergency Loan Program Repayment STAFF CONTACTS: Roberta Reichgelt, (roberta.reichgelt@slcgov.com) x7694 DOCUMENT TYPE: Ordinance RECOMMENDATION: Adopt an Ordinance BUDGET IMPACT: $1M issued for the Emergency Loan Program in FY20. BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION: The COVID-19 Pandemic (“Pandemic”) has impacted the world and our local economy to an unprecedented level. It is widely known that small businesses have experienced extreme difficulties relating to the pandemic that are, in turn, having a great impact on the economy. In the early days of the Pandemic, the City sought to mitigate the negative effects for long term health and the well-being of the economy by releasing an Emergency Loan Program (ELP). Established in March of 2020, ELP's goal was to assist small businesses immediately impacted by the Pandemic by providing financial relief for businesses and their employees. In other words, the program was intended to close the financial gap between closure and the eventual State and Federal relief programs (see program transmittal to Council attached). The City’s ELP was one of the first in the country to be established at the onset of the pandemic. 8/12/2022 8/12/2022 Lisa Shaffer (Aug 12, 2022 16:28 MDT) The ELP provided $1M in funding to 52 Salt Lake City businesses and nonprofits in amounts ranging from $5,000 up to $20,000. The repayment of these loans was set to begin 90 days after the Mayor’s Emergency Proclamation ended on May 7, 2021. During this 90-day window, DED sent out a survey to recipients to understand the potential impacts of requiring loan repayment. The response rate was 12% and more than half of those responses indicated that it would be somewhat difficult or extremely difficult to make repayments on their loan. Because Salt Lake City’s small businesses were still recovering from the impacts of the Pandemic, the City’s Department of Economic Development (“DED”) administratively deferred repayment of all loans until December 31, 2021. Loan repayments were set to begin on January 1, 2022; however, the ELP loans remain outstanding, pending policy direction from City Council. During this period, two of the 52 recipients have exercised the option to pay off their loan and none of the remaining loans are in repayment. Additionally, of the 52 businesses/nonprofits that received loans, two businesses 1 and one nonprofit have since closed. State of the Economy While many industries have experienced recovery in taxable sales, some industries continue to face economic challenges. Below are industries which 1) experienced losses in 2020 compared to 2019, 2) represent more than $100m in taxable sales in 2019, and 3) continue to see fluctuations in revenue with the introduction of new COVID variants: Food Service and Drinking Places Accommodations (i.e. hotels) Arts, Entertainment and Recreation These industries are central to Salt Lake City’s quality of life and urban core experience. The severe impact of the Pandemic on these industries was predicted at the onset of the Pandemic- related shutdowns, which was why DED targeted these industries for the Emergency Loan Program. Of the SLC businesses and nonprofits that received funds, 67% came from the above listed industries. Furthermore, a Mckinsey study was done on these industries predicting when they would recover back to 2019 pre-Pandemic levels and found that it could be as long as 2024/2025 2 before they would experience full recovery. This is due to low financial resilience (balance sheets for small businesses in these industries lack flexibility, since a significant portion of the costs are relatively fixed) and also because these industries typically operate on extremely thin margins. Another industry significantly represented in the ELP recipients was retail (21%, not including food and beverage). All of the ELP recipient retail businesses have brick and mortar locations in Salt Lake City. Retail had already been suffering with the rise of Amazon and other online retail options, and the Pandemic only exacerbated this issue, forcing retailers to adapt their sales models. 1 ONE OF THESE TWO BUSINESSES HAS SINCE REOPENED AS A NEW BUSINESS CONCEPT. 2https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/us-small-business-recovery-after-the-covid- 19-crisis Supply chain issues have also caused stress on businesses due to COVID infections setting off port closures. It is not surprising that the impacts of this are more severe on small businesses, as they are not able to easily pursue alternative transport options. In addition, the current high inflation rate that our country and state are collectively facing continues to further impact our small business community. Lastly, current labor shortages have caused Salt Lake City’s small businesses to have difficulties finding employees to support their businesses. This will almost certainly create further negative economic impacts on small businesses and serves to demonstrate how uncertain their economic recovery is in the short-term future, necessitating further assistance for small businesses. In general, Salt Lake City experienced a dramatic drop in year-over-year sales in 2020 with April 2020 having a 16% drop and continued negative year-over-year performance until December of 2020. 2021 saw tremendous recovery, with April 2021 seeing 40% year-over-year growth. This overall recovery continues into the latest months captured by County data (December 2021),3 but the data indicates ongoing fluctuations due to spikes in COVID cases from variants. Loan Program Repayment Examples from Illinois and Utah Due to the continued financial impact to small businesses, communities throughout the nation that also instituted emergency loan programs are finding ways to eliminate the debt burden on their small businesses. The State of Illinois’ Small Business Emergency Loan Fund supported their 3 https://slco.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=c07ef403435442909c7dc30c0da2b718 recipient businesses by later releasing a Business Interruption Grants Program that businesses could use to pay back the loan 4. Locally, the State of Utah’s Small Business Bridge Loan Program was deployed around the same time as the City’s Emergency Loan Program with a similar objective to keep businesses afloat while awaiting federal funding. A total of $12M was delivered to 1,150 businesses and nonprofits 5. Loan repayment restarted 12 months after the funds were issued (approximately Spring of 2021) and as of December 2021 only $4M had been collected. At the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (GO Utah) sent out communication stating that borrowers’ loans would be converted to grants and any businesses that had begun making payment would be reimbursed. No application was required for this conversion of the funds; instead, GO Utah simply worked with the borrowers to amend their current loan contract. Policy Considerations In order to pursue next steps for the City’s Emergency Loan Program loan recipients, DED presents the following Policy Considerations for Council to contemplate: 1) Loan deferment for 12 additional months until January 1, 2023. (As noted above, repayment was set to begin in January 2022 and the loans remain pending policy direction). This option would give loan recipients additional time to further recover the economic losses to their business. 2) Loan deferment until December 31, 2024 - this deadline is in alignment with the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) expenditures deadline. This takes into consideration that small businesses could seek opportunities from ARPA funds to assist with financial hardships the business may be experiencing. Please note, however, that ARPA funds may only be used for Pandemic-related business operating expenses and labor, and debt repayment is not an eligible use of ARPA funds. Thus, this deferment would provide an opportunity for businesses to access assistance that would potentially free up other revenue for the ELP debt repayment. In addition, the deferment of debt payments is a key item that supports the recovery of businesses, and this timeline is in alignment with the economic data and information referenced above. 3) Convert all loans into grants, similar to what other emergency loan programs have done, such as the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity as described previously. This would relieve the businesses of having to pay back the debt as they continue to recover. Should this option be approved, a public benefit analysis for each of the 52 individual businesses/nonprofits would need to be executed prior to converting any of the loans to grants. 4 https://www2.illinois.gov/dceo/SmallBizAssistance/Pages/IllinoisSmallBusinessEmergencyLoanFund.aspx 5https://business.utah.gov/news/sorenson-impact-center-releases-first-report-on-bridge-loan- program/?hilite=bridge+loans 4) Convert some of the loans into grants by creating guidelines to consider for businesses that can demonstrate a hardship and need for relief. Should this option be approved, a public benefit analysis for each individual business/nonprofit that meets the guidelines for a grant would need to be executed in order to relieve the business/nonprofit of repayment. The City deeply values its local, small business community and wants to assist borrowers whose businesses may still be recovering from the COVID-19 Pandemic. Therefore, the Department of Economic Development recommends to Council to consider further deferment of repayment in line with the ARPA expenditures deadline of December 31, 2024 (option 2, above). This would allow for additional time needed to further support small business recovery. At that time, DED can assess each business’s ability to repay and can provide further recommendations to Council on an individual basis.6 By availing this option to small businesses, the City would further demonstrate its strong support for the small business community. 6 IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT DED RECOMMENDATIONS AT THAT TIME MAY INCLUDE SOME SELECTIVE RECOMMENDATIONS TO WRITE-OFF OR REDUCE LOAN PRINCIPAL,DEPENDING ON CONDITIONS OF THE LOAN RECIPIENT BUSINESSES. SALT LAKE CITY ORDINANCE No. _____ of 2022 (Ordinance approving the deferral of Emergency Loan Program loans) WHEREAS, on March 10, 2020, the Mayor issued a “Proclamation Declaring a Local Emergency” (“Proclamation”) in response to the global outbreak of COVID-19 (“Pandemic”). WHEREAS, on March 24, 2020, Salt Lake City Corporation (the “City”) created a revolving loan fund referred to as the Emergency Loan Program (the “ELP”) via Resolution No. 4 of 2020 to provide financial relief for small businesses located in Salt Lake City in response to the Pandemic’s adverse economic impacts; and WHEREAS, the City, via Resolution No. 4 of 2020, adopted certain loan criteria and processes to govern the ELP (the “Program Terms”); and WHEREAS, the ELP, administered by the City’s Department of Economic Development (the “DED”), provided one million dollars in funding to fifty-two Salt Lake City businesses and nonprofits in amounts ranging from $5,000 up to $20,000; and WHEREAS, pursuant to the Program Terms, the repayment of the ELP loans was set to begin 90 days after the Proclamation ended on May 7, 2021; and WHEREAS, the repayment of the loans was additionally deferred from August 7, 2021, to December 31, 2021 in response to ongoing adverse economic impacts arising from various coronavirus variant outbreaks in the Pandemic during the fall; and WHEREAS, economic recovery for small businesses continues to be unsteady, with Salt Lake City businesses in retail, food/beverage services, hospitality, arts, entertainment, and recreation industries continuing to face financial stress due to the Pandemic’s lingering impacts, such as variant spikes, global supply chain issues, increasing inflation, and labor shortages; and WHEREAS, these continuing adverse impacts may further strain the financial condition of the City’s small business ELP loan recipients; and WHEREAS, the City deeply values its local, small business community, and wishes to relieve the economic pressure on ELP loan recipients to permit them additional time for a full and robust economic recovery; and WHEREAS, a deferral of the ELP loans until December 31, 2024, in line with the ARPA expenditure deadline, would provide ELP loan recipients the opportunity to more fully recover from the adverse impacts brought by the Pandemic. NOW, THEREFORE, be it ordained by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah, that: SECTION 1. Conversion of certain ELP loans to grants. The City Council hereby authorizes the deferral of repayment of the ELP loans until December 31, 2024. The City Council authorizes the Mayor to negotiate and execute amendments to the loan agreements and any other relevant documents necessary to evidence this deferral, including incorporating such other terms and agreements as recommended by the City Attorney’s office. SECTION 2. Effective Date. This ordinance shall become effective on the date of its first publication. Passed by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah, this ______ day of _____________________, 2022. Dan Dugan, Council Chair ATTEST AND COUNTERSIGN: ______________________________ CITY RECORDER Transmitted to Mayor on _______________________. Mayor's Action: _______Approved. _______Vetoed. ______________________________ MAYOR ______________________________ CITY RECORDER (SEAL) Bill No. ________ of 2022. Published: ______________. APPROVED AS TO FORM Salt Lake City Attorney’s Office Date: Sara Montoya, City Attorney August 12, 2022 ERIN MENDENHALL MAYOR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, RDA DEPARTMENT of ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BENKOLENDAR ACTING DIRECTOR CITY COUNCIL TRANSMITTAL Date Received: Rachel Otto, Chiefof Staff Date sent to Council: TO:Salt LakeCity Council DATE: April 13, 2020 Chris Wharton, Chair FROM:Benjamin Kolendar, Acting Director, Department of EconomicDevelopment SUBJECT:Emergency LoanProgramUpdate STAFF CONTACTS: Peter Makowski, Acting Director of Business Development Division peter.makowski@slcgov.com; (801) 573-1760 DOCUMENT TYPE: Information Item RECOMMENDATION: NA BUDGET IMPACT: NA BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mayor Mendenhall’s “State of Local Emergency” declaration on March 10 th , 2020, Salt Lake City’s Department of Economic Development (DED) focused all efforts to support the business community as business shutdowns, partial and full closures were recommended and later required. DED immediately responded by surveying the business community through an online survey. DED provided emergency information and assembled business resources, available at that time, by building a COVID-19 website, housed on our Department site. The information received from companies as a result of the survey demonstrated a need for small business support that was rapid and flexible. Staff immediately researched emergency economic relief programs, which resulted in the creation of the Emergency Loan Program (ELP). The programs’ mission is to assist small businesses immediately impacted by COVID-19 by providing financial relief for businesses and their employees and bridging the financial gap between closure and eventual State and Federal relief programs. On Tuesday March 17 th, City Council approved the allocation of $1,000,000, sourced from the Economic Development Loan Fund (EDLF), to fund ELP small business loans. The funds were to be distributed in two rounds of $500,000 for amounts requested by the borrower. Loan Terms: Loan Amount: up to $20,000 Term: 5 years Interest Rate: 0% Repayment Terms: Equal monthly payments of principal. Repayment will commence approximately 90 days following the subsidence of the COVID-19 outbreak and following notice from the City. Any write-off or loan forgiveness must be approved by the City Council. Eligible Borrowers: Must have physical location within Salt Lake City limits Must have 50 employees or less 25% of this funding shall be allocated to businesses West of I-15. Guarantee: Loan is guaranteed by any owner holding 20% or more interest in the ownership of the business (Non- Profit Organizations exempt). Required information: Complete Application Financials: profit and loss, and balance sheets from previous year Business tax returns from previous year Most recent month-end or quarterly financial statement Previous year’s personal tax returns Copy of Salt Lake City Business License Copy of driver’s license o government issued ID Signed W-9 form Copy of lease or mortgage statement Loan Processing and Evaluation Applications were received and uploaded for our Application Review Team to process. After ensuring that all required application documents have been received, the Application Review Team evaluated and scored each application (evaluation form attached). The following criteria was considered when scoring each complete application: Business type (25 pts) - priorityon restaurant, retail,bars, events spaces, artsbased businesses that have been heavily affected by the mandated closures/limitations. o 25 = Targeted industry (restaurant/bar/retail/event/arts) o 15 = Non-targeted industry o 0 = Not applicable (home based business, independent contractor,etc) Financial Need (25 pts) – rating the completeness of financial information provided and overall health of the business. Prioritizing those that have been disrupted in operations due to the county and state mandated closures for certain types of businesses. o 25 = Complete financials/Healthy business o 15 = Incomplete financials/Unhealthy business o 0 = No financials Narrative (25 pts) - Businesses must provide an overview of the business in the form of an Executive Summary, which must demonstrate under normal circumstances the business would be profitable without disaster disruption, and the impact on the business such as decreased customers, decreased sales, etc. o 25 = Detailed description of business/impact o 15 = Incomplete description of business/impact o 0 = No narrative Use of funds (15 pts) o 15 = Working capital, inventory, marketing o 0 = Non-applicable use Credit Score (10 pts) – Non-Profit Organizations exempt o 0 = 0-549 o 2 = 550-599 o 4 = 600-649 o 6 = 650-650 o 8 = 700-749 o 10 = 750+ All complete applications were reviewed, scored and ranked by total score (100 points possible). Loan Committee Once complete applications were reviewed and scored, they were packaged for review by the ELP Loan Committee. The Loan Committee consists of representatives from the City Council, SLC Business Advisory Board, Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City, SLC Arts Council, and Downtown Alliance. The Loan Committee was provided the following: List of complete applications for review Evaluation form and methodology Access to all application files Loan Committee Ranking The Loan Committee was charged with ranking all complete loans and selecting those to be funded. The Loan Committee members selected the top 25 loans to fund at the applicant’s requested amount (25% of complete applications will be west side businesses) Staff tallied the committee rankings, evaluated additional loans, and approved theloan package for funding. o Round 1 Loan Committee Ranking Attached o Round 2 Loan Committee Ranking Attached Diversity When developing the ELP, DED took the following measures to attempt to reach all members of the community: Installed Google Translation on the ELP website, translating our website in thousands of languages. Offered applications in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Swahili. Worked with the Suazo Business Center and other ethnic Chambers of Commerce to adapt application requirements to fit the needs of their communities. Included gender and ethnicity data tracking in all applications Partnered with the Suazo Business Center and the Small Business Development Center to assist non-English speaking applicants with completing their applications. DED collected data on applications as it pertains to diversity. Diverse Applications are defined as loan applications with non-white and/or female guarantors. DED used following methodology to measure this data: Data categorized by Loan Recipients (funded) and Total Applications (complete applications only) Data subcategorized by Funding Round and totaled. Represented Diverse Applications of Loan Recipients and Total Applications as a percentage. Guarantors are required to own 20% of the business applying. Data reflects applications with ethnic and/or female guarantors. Many applications included two guarantors, gender/ethnicity was collected for both in these cases and were captured in the analysis. Represented Loan Recipients and Total Applications of Total Guarantors as a percentage. Compared Loan Recipients and Total Applications ethnic/gender data to Salt Lake City demographic data (Source: Source: EDCUtah, JobsEQ, http://wwwchmuraecon.com/jobseq, January 2020) After two rounds of funding, completed applications and loans funded displayed the following demographic characteristics: Data Analysis Observations While racially diverse applications were short of population demographics acrossthe board, round 2 showed a significant increase from round 1 to round2. Total recipient percentages for racially diverse and women owned againstapplications were fairly consistent with minor increases for bothcategories. Round One Funding On Wednesday evening, March 18 th, DED launched the first round of funding via our website and started accepting applications online. Note, Salt Lake City experienced a 5.7 magnitude earthquake earlier that morning. During round one, while responding to impacts of the earthquake, DED on-boarded, reviewed and evaluated all applications received, while creating the backend processes, including an Application Review Team, required to perform these tasks. DED worked with local partners to develop a streamlined application and review process, making our website and documents multi-lingual, and assisting applicants with translation and financial needs. All solutions involved virtual and online tools to “work from home” and social distancing requirements. Due to time and capacity constraints, DED was unable to assist customers with their applications, thus only completed applications were considered for funding in round one. On Monday, March 23 rd, the round one application period closed. DED received 341 applications, with 73 complete loans packaged for loan committee review. On Wednesday, March 25 th, complete applications were forwarded to the ELP Loan Committee, consisting of members from the City Council, SLC Business Advisory Board, Redevelopment Agency, Downtown Alliance, and SLC Arts Council, for consideration. Due to funding constraints, 26 of 73 complete applications were funded. On Thursday, March all applicants, both funded and unfunded, were notified and staff began helping applicants complete their applications. Application and Evaluation Results APPLICATIONS ROUND 1 Total Complete Applications 73 Total Incomplete Applications 268 East of I-15 Applications 295 West of I-15Applications 46 Total applications 341 EVALUATIONS ROUND 1 East of I-15 Evaluated 64 West of I-15 Evaluated 9 Funding Results FUNDING ROUND 1 Total Loans Funded 26 Total Loans Not Funded 315 East Side $ Requested $5,401,883 West Side $ Requested $791,000 Total $ Requested $6,192,883 East Side $ Funded $377,000 West Side $ Funded $120,000 Round Two Funding On Wednesday, March 26th, DED launched round two of funding and immediately on-boarded, reviewed and evaluated new applications, while working with incomplete applications from round one. This required staff to review hundreds more applications while simultaneously helping hundreds of applicants complete their applications. Similar to round one, DED created the backend processes, including a complete Customer Service Team, throughout the round two application period. On Thursday, April 2 nd, the round two application period closed and all Loans Evaluated 73 Total $ Funded $497,000 complete loans applications were forwarded to the ELP Loan Committee for approval. The committee approved 26 of 303 loans on Monday, April 6th. Application and Evaluation Results APPLICATIONS ROUND 2 Total Complete Applications 303 Total Incomplete Applications 83 East of I-15 Applications 336 West of I-15Applications 50 Total applications 386 EVALUATIONS ROUND 2 East of I-15 Evaluated 266 West of I-15 Evaluated 37 Funding Results FUNDING ROUND 2 Total Loans Funded 26 Total Loans Not Funded 360 East Side $ Requested $5,800,472 West Side $ Requested $860,000 Total $ Requested $6,660,472 East Side $ Funded $360,000 West Side $ Funded $135,000 Industry Funding Results The ELP funding focused on key industries (Restaurant/Bar, Retail, Event, Arts) identified through our online survey. The graphs below represent completed applications by industry. Loans Evaluated 303 Total $ Funded $495,000 Program Financial Results APPLICATIONS ROUND 1 ROUND 2 TOTAL Total Complete Applications 73 303 376 Total Incomplete Applications 268 83 351 East of I-15 Applications 295 336 631 West of I-15Applications 46 50 96 Total applications 341 386 727 EVALUATIONS ROUND 1 ROUND 2 TOTAL East of I-15 Evaluated 64 266 330 West of I-15 Evaluated 9 37 46 Loans Evaluated 73 303 376 FUNDING ROUND 1 ROUND 2 TOTAL Total Loans Funded 26 26 52 Total Loans Not Funded 315 360 675 East Side $ Requested $5,401,883 $5,800,472 $11,202,355 West Side $ Requested $791,000 $860,000 $1,651,000 Total $ Requested $6,192,883 $6,660,472 $12,853,355 East Side $ Funded $377,000 $360,000 $737,000 West Side $ Funded $120,000 $135,000 $255,000 Total $ Funded $497,000 $495,000 $992,000 Lessons Learned The City needs a reliable source of diverse owned businesses in order to appropriately benchmark applications. Population demographics may not accurately correlate to business ownership. The digital divide can pose challenges to quickly administering programs virtually. The first round and second round had a large disparity of minority applications. The second round had a higher volume and percentage of diverse applications. The Mayor’s ADA liaison and policy advisors on human rights and refugees & new Americans should be included in the loan committee for future rounds. If the Business Development team asks organizations to select review committeemembers, diverse representation should be considered before confirming those members. Technology solutions for additional rounds of funding and/or future financial programs would drastically reduce processing manpower. It’s likely that a technology solution could also help with the challenge of incomplete applications. Requirements for non-profits should differ from for-profit businesses. Attachments Loan Evaluation Form Final Approved Businesses Round 1 Loan Recipients Reported Race Guarantor 1 Reported Gender Guarantor 1 Reported Race Guarantor 2 Gender Guarantor2 Tradition white male white male Cucina Deli white male Marble Cast Productions other male other female Les Madeleine hispanic female Desert Dog Daycare white female white male Equipt Expedition Outfitters white male Brewvies white male Atelier LLC white female white female Mineral and Matter white female LUX Events hispanic male white male Tulie white female white male Sun Trap white male white male Cornerstone Aviation white female Ken Sanders Rare Books white male Vosen's Bread Paradise white male white female Comfort Bowl asian male Kyoto white male n/a male Butterfly Jac Salon white female white female Greek Souvlaki white male Western Rivers white male Sugarhouse BBQ white male white male Este Pizza Sugarhouse white male white female Proper Brewing white male ChallengerIndustrial Supply white male Sierra Wholesale Supply white male Proper Cuisine white male Round 2 Loan Recipients Reported Race Guarantor 1 Reported Gender Guarantor 1 Reported Race Guarantor 2 Gender Guarantor 2 Nomad Eatery white female Flourish Bakery n/a n/a Caputo's white n/a King's English white female white female Salt Lake Film Society white female Zaater & Zayton other female other female Beehive Floral white female Galaxy LLC hispanic female hispanic female Red Iguana hispanic female Amour Café white female white male Urban Lounge white male white male Fisher Beer white male Sweet Lake hispanic female white male Utah Arts Festival Foundation n/a n/a Utah Cultural Alliance white female Publik Coffee white female Urban Pioneer Foods white female Hayat's Grill other male Relax Nails LLC asian male asian male Quarters Arcade Bar white male white male East Liberty Tap House white male white male Garage on Beck white male Blue Copper white male white male Toasters white male white n/a Hello Bulk american indian female Utah Arts Alliance white male