Some of the largest participants in the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) have been among the state’s major architecture, engineering and construction businesses.
The SBA released data on July 6 naming businesses and organizations which have received more than $150,000 from the program. It doesn’t identify specifically recipients under $150,000 in its extensive listing, but includes their ZIP code, industry and number of jobs retained.The program allows companies and nonprofits with fewer than 500 workers to get a low-interest loan to cover up to two months of payroll and expenses like rent and utilities. If the loan is used to retain workers and the company doesn’t cut wages, it turns into a grant.
The controversial program has had challenges in that some businesses at its outset complained they had trouble accessing it (individual banks process the loans and process the funds to the companies) and that businesses which really didn’t need the money or could access other sources of funding were draining large quantities of funds from PPP allocation.
However, after the rough early goings, the federal government has extended the deadline for applications from small business owners and the Washington Post reports that $150 billion remained available as of earlier in the week..
SBA data shows that nearly 122,000 loans were completed in North Carolina by June 30, with an overall value of more than $12.4 billion, the News & Observer reports.
More than 16,300 companies received loans of more than $150,00 and about 100 companies received loans of $5 million to $10 million.
Within the AEC community, these larger loan recipients in the Triangle area included student housing developer DP Preiss, construction material supplier Carolina Sunrock and consulting firm FMI Corp. Others elsewhere in the state included Little Diversified Architectural Consulting (Charlotte), Johnston Architecture (Wilmington) and Summit Design and Engineering (Hillsborough).
Overall, the SBA data reports that construction companies and health care and social assistance companies received the largest number of loans of both more or less than $150,000.