The City of Newport Beach will be offering small business grants of up to $10,000 through its Small Business Relief Grant Program, which provides one-time funding to small businesses located within the city that need financial assistance to aid in their recovery from the temporary loss of revenue due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Applications will be accepted from Friday, June 12 at 8 a.m. to Tuesday, June 16 at 5:30 p.m.
The program is being funded by $2.1 million in federal Coronavirus Relief Fund monies received by the County of Orange and distributed to Newport Beach to use for small business support grant programs.
Qualified Newport Beach businesses may receive grants of up to $10,000, depending on the number of employees. Precedence will be given to businesses that provide on-site services, including retail businesses, restaurants, and personal service establishments, specifically, hair salons and barber shops, nail salons, and small gyms and health clubs.
To be eligible to apply for the Small Business Relief Grant Program, a business will need to demonstrate the need for financial support that is directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic (for example, being forced to shut down and/or had to lay off employees). 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 legal and located in a commercial or industrial space.
- The business must be independently owned and operated, with the principal office located within Newport Beach city limits.
- The officers of the business must reside in Orange County, California.
- The business must have an active Newport Beach business license for a minimum of six (6) months as of June 1, 2020.
- The business must have 30 or less full-time, or an equivalent combination of full and part time employees (two part-time employees equal one full-time employee), including the owner.
Grant applications will be available beginning June 12 at 8 a.m. at www.newportbeachca.gov/businessgrants.
The Orange County Small Business Development Center is administering the grant program for the City. The Development Center will offer two informational webinars to help small business owners better understand the program. The webinars will be held on Tuesday, June 9 at 4 p.m. and Thursday, June 11 at 10 a.m. Register at https://fullerton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ElgBpryaQhO_zSDwALyZRQ.
The City anticipates receiving more qualifying applications than the program can fund. If that occurs, after the application period closes a lottery system will be used to randomly select and rank the applications.
For complete details, visit https://newportbeachca.gov/government/departments/city-manager/small-business-program-grant.
Program Guidelines: https://www.newportbeachca.gov/home/showdocument?id=66965.
