The Restaurant Revitalization Fund has closed, and nearly two-thirds of the Massachusetts restaurants that applied to the federal grant program did not receive funds.
Created earlier this year as part of the American Rescue Plan, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund awarded $992.9 million to more than 2,200 Massachusetts restaurants, bars and other eligible establishments affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Small Business Administration, which administered the grant program, said in a statement that the $28.6 billion grant program closed on Friday.
“The $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund provided desperately needed relief to more than 100,000 restaurants and other food and beverage businesses across the nation with significant funding going to our hardest-hit, underserved businesses,” SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman said in the statement. “Restaurants are at the center of our neighborhoods and propel economic activity on Main Streets. As among the first to close in this pandemic and likely the last to reopen, many are still struggling to survive.”
Guzman added that the SBA would continue to help restaurants get the resources needed “to recover, rebuild and be resilient.”
Since its launch in May, the RRF program nationwide received more than 278,000 eligible applications from restaurants, bars and other restaurant-type businesses that requested over $72.2 billion in grants, according to SBA data as of June 30. The $28.6 billion in funding went to approximately 101,000 business, about 36 percent of those that applied.
The SBA said underserved populations received approximately $18 billion in grants, including women- and veteran-owned businesses, business owners considered socially and economically disadvantaged, and businesses owned by representatives of multiple underserved populations.
The average grant size nationally was $283,000, with awards between $350,000 and $1 million representing 27.2 percent of the funds, the most of any of the dollar ranges provided by the SBA. Awards between $2 million and $5 million represented 18 percent of the funding, and the largest awards between $5 million and $10 million represented 4.6 percent of the dollars disbursed.
Restaurants, bars, caterers and food stands or trucks were the most common establishments to apply for grants. Businesses were eligible for aid equal to their pandemic-related revenue loss, the SBA said, with caps of $10 million per business and $5 million per location. The funds could be used for payroll, rent and other eligible expenses.
Only 37 percent of the 6,867 applications from Massachusetts restaurants were approved. The state’s establishments had sought $2.4 billion in grants. The 2,256 restaurants approved for grants received $992.9 million, for an average award in Massachusetts of $388,472.
A bill was introduced in Congress last month to add funding to the RRF. The SBA said it continues to provide COVID-related funding through Economic Injury Disaster Loans, Targeted EIDL Advance, Supplemental Targeted Advance and the Community Navigator Program.
Correction 1:10 p.m., July 12, 2021: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of Massachusetts’ applications to the RRF. The program received 6,867 applications, and 37 percent were approved for a grant.
