BELLEVILLE, Ill. — The City of Belleville recently received $150,000 from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) for the city’s COVID-19 Business Recovery Grant Program.
Applications for funding are open to local Belleville businesses and are due no later than Jan. 5 at 4:30 p.m. Businesses can request up to $5,000.
The program will be open to businesses that fall under the categories of bar/restaurant, entertainment and retail/wholesale. An “other” category will be added for those businesses that may not fall within the other categories but have been affected by the pandemic.
The funding may be used for payroll, operating expenses, lease/rent payments, modifications required for compliance with reopening guidelines or inventory and acquisition vital to the business.
Applicants will be required to submit a completed application, a description of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2019 or the businesses’ latest tax returns, a signed W-9 form, bank statements from 2020 showing losses in revenue and proof of any previous funding.
Funding will be distributed based on a scoring system based on loss of revenue, duration of closure, years in business, percentage of business operations subject to mandatory closure and the number of full-time-equivalent employees.
Eligibility criteria for the grant funding includes:
- Businesses must be located within the corporate limits of Belleville
- Businesses must have 50 or fewer full-time-equivalent employees. Full-time-equivalent is defined as a combination of 35 hours per week.
- Businesses with revenues reduced >20% by COVID-19 in any months from March-December vs. February 2020.
- Businesses who have not received federal funding (PPP, EIDL, BIG, etc.) in the past, or businesses that have received federal funding and intend to use the Belleville Business Recovery Grant funding for expenses different than what federal funding was used for.
- For-profit small businesses only are eligible (non-profit organizations are not eligible). For profit businesses owned by non-profits are eligible, if they meet all other requirements. The application must be made through the for-profit business, and not the non-profit parent company.
- May not have an IRS tax lien or other judgement(s) against it and the business owners or partners may not be currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings.
Click here, email edpz@belleville.net or call 618-233-6810, ext. 1249 for more information on the Business Recovery Grant Program.
