Following up on Governor Murphy’s announcement last week committing $50 million to the EDA for grants to support small businesses hurt by the COVID-19 shutdown, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) voted today to add $5 million to April’s oversubscribed grant program for those already in the queue and use $45 million for a new broader grant program to support small businesses.
NJ EDA will receive this money from the federal CARES Act funding. The new phase of the grant program will be extended to:
- all NAICS codes instead of the limited few covered in the first phase
- employers with up to 25 employees will be eligible instead of the 1-10 criteria from the first round
- a cap of $10,000 per application instead of the previous $5,000
- sole proprietors and home-based businesses that were left out of first program
- allow counties to piggyback on this new grant program by using their CARES Act money to create a similar small business grant program
- focus one-third of the grants on traditionally underserved areas in Opportunity Zone-eligible tracts
- work with the NJ Department of Environmental Protection to dole out their CARES Act grant funds
“NJBIA had been advocating to provide federal CARES Act funding to the EDA for helping businesses struggling in this pandemic, and we were happy to see that the State listened to us about giving the EDA this money,” said Christopher Emigholz, NJBIA’s Vice President of Government Affairs. “NJBIA had also been requesting that the EDA expand the very limited eligibility criteria from the first round of EDA grants, and we were happy to see that expansion with this new $45 million.”
The EDA’s special board meeting approving this new grant funding featured several small business owners frustrated that they did not access the first round of EDA funding, and NJBIA understands this frustration. Toward that, NJBIA hopes that more CARES Act and other federal funding can flow to the EDA to further expand the programs they offer to support businesses struggling in this pandemic.
EDA CEO Tim Sullivan estimated that these programs may be available to apply to by June 8, 2020. NJEDA staff will again process the applications on a first-come, first-served basis. There will be no application fee.
Applications for Phase 2 of the Small Business Emergency Assistance Grant Program will be available soon. NJEDA staff will process the applications on a first-come, first-served basis. There will be no application fee. More information about New Jersey’s COVID-19 response is available here.
6 responses to “EDA to Spend $50 Million More to Support Businesses Struggling from COVID-19”
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KEEP ME INFORMED IN REGARD TO PHASE 3.5 – WHEN APPS ARE AVAILABLE (JUNE 8?) – THANKS
Great do need. My taxi business is total shut down.
The SBA denied us for ppp and eidl due to not enough credit history which is nonsense since those are forgiven loans.
These aren’t normal times but they don’t seem to care to bend the rules a little during a crisis. These grants will be helpful to the small struggling businesses
Does the application for the initial grant for $5000. Automatically be considered again for $10,000. Or do we reapply.
Please let us know when the grant for Phase 2 is available. We did not apply for any loans with SBA due to credit history and so forth. The grant can really make a difference for our company as our clients cancelled service because they scared due to COVID-19.
We were also denied a PPP loan due lack of credit history. The problem is, we have a lot of credit history, 18 years worth, and it has never been as good as it is now. Very hard to understand. We need all the help we can get. Please let us know when we can apply for this Grant. Thank you!