The City of Newport Beach is offering an additional grant program to help local small businesses that have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 public health emergency.
The Small Business Support Grant Program will provide grants of $5,000 each to qualifying Newport Beach small businesses.
Applications will be accepted between Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 8 a.m. and Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 5 p.m. The application and program guidelines are available at www.newportbeachca.gov/supportgrants.
The City recently received $290,000 from the Orange County Board of Supervisors’ Second District to use toward economic support initiatives. The Newport Beach City Council authorized using the funding toward a new grant program for small businesses.
To be eligible for the grants, a business must attest to the need for financial support due to adverse impacts directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic (for example, being forced to shut down). Other criteria include, but are not limited to:
- The business must be a for-profit business and located within Newport Beach city limits.
- The business must be independently owned and operated, with the principal office located within Newport Beach city limits.
- The business must be legal and located in a commercial or industrial space.
- At least one of the officers of the business must reside in Orange County.
- The business can have no more than 50 full-time employees, or an equivalent combination of full- and part-time employees, including the owner.
- The business must have average annual gross receipts of $15 million or less over the previous three years.
Interested business owners should visit the City website at www.newportbeachca.gov/supportgrants for the complete list of eligibility criteria.
The program is open to any Newport Beach small business that meets the criteria. Priority will be given to applicants that have not received a City grant within the past year and businesses providing on-site services that have been severely impacted by the public health emergency.
Examples of on-site service businesses include restaurants, retail and personal service establishments (such as hair salons and barber shops, nail salons, and small gyms and health clubs).
If the number of applications received by the City exceeds the amount of grant monies available, the City will use a lottery system to randomly select and rank the applications.
