Small Business Relief Fund

The City of Palm Beach Gardens is proud to announce the creation of the Small Business Relief Fund to provide financial support for our small businesses impacted by COVID-19 emergency orders. As part of the City’s Economic Recovery Act, this emergency grant program has been developed for locally owned small businesses operated within the municipal boundaries of Palm Beach Gardens.

In partnership with the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce and PGA Corridor Association, the City has developed an aggressive program that will provide significant relief to businesses with no more than 25 employees. The Small Business Relief Fund is expected to provide critical financial support to up to 50 businesses with a one-time grant payment of $20,000 for each qualifying applicant. The goal of the Small Business Relief Fund is to help offset the significant, temporary loss of revenue experienced by businesses at the heart of the Palm Beach Gardens community that have been crippled by closures and disruption of operations.

Who is eligible?

This is a City funded program that provides grants (not loans) in the form of $20,000.00 to each impacted and eligible businesses*.

Applicants must meet the below criteria:

Be a small business operating within the municipal boundaries of Palm Beach Gardens.
Have not been approved or received funds from the SBA Paycheck Protection Program, or the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Emergency Bridge Loan.
Locally owned and independently operated (No Chains)
Physically established in the city of Palm Beach Gardens for past 18 months
Be operating within the defined impacted eligible industries*
Have 25 employees or fewer
Affirm a loss of revenue due to COVID-19
Affirm you have no other means of a loan and that this grant will be used for rent, utilities and payroll to employees other than to the business owner.
No more than one application for managing member or owner, if multiple businesses are owned or controlled within Palm Beach Gardens.
Home-based businesses do not meet eligibility requirements for this program
Evaluated on a first come first serve basis

Business applicants must provide the following:

1. State of Florida business registration from the Florida Division of Corporation
2. Current Palm Beach Gardens Business Tax Receipt
3. Current Balance Sheet for the Business
4. Full Year 2019 Profit and Loss Statement
5. Year to date Profit and Loss Statement
6. Budget showing use of funds for the period May 1 thru October 31, 2020
7. Payroll Tax Receipt Form 941as filed for Q4-2019 and Q1-2020

*PLEASE NOTE, THE ABOVE ITEMS WILL BE REQUIRED TO BE UPLOADED TO THE APPLICATION AS ONE ATTACHMENT. THERE IS A 20MB SIZE LIMIT FOR FILES. THE PREFERRED FILE FORMAT IS PDF.*

*Defined impacted eligible industries include:

Restaurant (includes full-service, limited-service, and café establishments)
Bar
Retail (physical brick-and-mortar establishment selling merchandise)
Professional and Healthcare Services
Hair, beauty, and other personal services (salons, barbers, massage parlors, tattoo, spas, etc.)
Personal care services (child, disabled, & elderly care services, funeral services, etc.)
Laundry services (dry cleaning, laundromats, garment repairs and alterations, etc.)
Cleaning services
Pet care services
Personal and household goods repairs & maintenance
Fitness centers and gyms

If selected, how can the award be used?

Awards are grants, so no payback is required. However, funds are to only be used for approved/eligible uses. These grants may be considered taxable income, so please contact your financial advisor for guidance.

To receive funding through this program, each business will be required to clearly articulate a plan for utilizing city funds for an eligible use including: commercial rent or mortgage payments, utilities, payroll, retention of employees, or employee support programs.

For businesses, the award can be used for the following:

Commercial Lease payments
Commercial Mortgage payments
Employee Salary and Benefits and funding existing Payroll
Other Sales, General, and Administrative expenses (SGA) deemed critical for business operations
Utilities
New equipment needed to assist the business to transition for new social distancing practices (e.g. dividers, partitions, etc.)

Before you apply, please read the following:

Privacy Statement/Public Records Disclaimer: Florida has a broad public records law. All correspondence, information (including financial information), and/or data provided to the City of Palm Beach Gardens as part of an application for a City Economic Recovery Act (ERA) grant, regardless of the media used to provide the information may be subject to disclosure as a matter of public record. Under Florida law, email addresses such information are public records. If you do not want your email addresses and information released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity.

It is the policy of the State of Florida that all state records are open for public inspection. This policy is embodied in the Florida Constitution, together with the right of an individual to be free from unauthorized governmental intrusion into their private life, as provided in Article 1, Section 23. In recognition of these policies, the City has established this Privacy Policy. When you use our site, you are acknowledging that personal information you provide is subject to Florida’s Public Records Policy as stated in Chapter 119, Florida Statures, and Article 1, Section 24 of the state Constitution.
Please be advised that the award and payment of ANY and ALL City Economic Recovery Act (ERA) grant fund are subject to the sole and absolute discretion the City of Palm Beach Gardens without recourse to the potential grant recipient. By submitting an ERA grant application, applicant hereby waives any and all claims that applicant has or may ever have related to an ERA grant and specifically agrees to indemnify and hold the City, its employees, officer, agents, and representatives harmless from any and all claims which may be in any way related to any award, payment, and/or denial of award and/or payment of any ERA grant.

How Do I Apply?

Use this link to complete the online application form. (A single attachment is allowed with a 20MB file size limit.) There are limited funds that will be distributed on a first-submitted and correctly completed application basis.

The deadline to apply is 5pm Wednesday, May 27, 2020. The City has allocated $1 million ($1,000,000.00) for this fund and applications will be accepted until funds are exhausted.

Qualifying Questions

Please, review these questions to determine eligibility for Program Funds:
(If you answer "no" to any of the questions 1 through 8, the business is not eligible.)

1. Is your business an independent restaurant, bar, retail, or personal services business that employed 25 people or less on February 29, 2020 that has been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 virus?

2. Is your business located within the municipal boundaries of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida?

3. Has your business been operating for at least 18 months in Palm Beach Gardens (as defined by the business formation date from the Florida Division of Corporations)?

4. Can your business demonstrate working capital for business operations as of February 29, 2020? (as demonstrated by #3 in Required Attachments)?

5. Is your Business registered with the City of Palm Beach Gardens Business Tax Division?
If no, please contact the Business Tax Division to register before applying.

6. Is your business either (i) in operation (ii) in limited-operation and expected to be fully operational once the state of emergency guidelines are rolled back?

7. Is business considered a Local, Independent Business, as defined by the following criteria:

Business must be registered in the State of Florida, with the majority of the business’ ownership being either held by private individuals or a privately held company (i.e., not publicly traded).
Business must make independent decisions regarding its name signage, brand, appearance, purchasing, practices, hiring, and distribution, and must be solely responsible for paying its own rent, marketing, and other business expenses without assistance from a corporate headquarters outside of Palm Beach Gardens.
Business must have no more than one franchise or outlet.

8. Does your business have 25 employees or fewer (FTE and PTE)?

Disqualifying Questions

Please review these questions to determine eligibility for funding under this program.
(If you answer “yes” to any of the questions 9 through 10, the Business is disqualified from participation in the program):

9. Have you received and CARES monies from the SBA including Payroll Protection Plan?

10. Does the Business have any current unpaid special assessment liens against it?