{"id":8258,"date":"2015-11-09T15:09:02","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T20:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/?p=8258"},"modified":"2016-01-21T10:15:17","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T15:15:17","slug":"governor-hogans-maryland-business-recovery-program-invests-nearly-1-3-million-to-help-baltimore-businesses-recover-rebuild-and-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/2015\/11\/09\/governor-hogans-maryland-business-recovery-program-invests-nearly-1-3-million-to-help-baltimore-businesses-recover-rebuild-and-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor Hogan\u2019s Maryland Business Recovery Program Invests Nearly $1.3 Million to Help Baltimore Businesses Recover, Rebuild and Grow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt was a lifesaver\u201d says one owner about zero-interest loans that helped small business owners remain in business, care for employees<\/em><\/p>\n

\"On<\/a>

On June 22, John Maneval, deputy director of multifamily and business lending programs for the department, presented the first check under the Maryland Business Recovery program, to business owner Juan Nunez.<\/p><\/div>\n

BALTIMORE \u2013 <\/strong>Tops in Cellular, a mobile electronics and accessories store in the city\u2019s Highlandtown community, is open for business thanks in part to a Hogan administration program established to help business owners recover from the civil unrest in Baltimore this spring.<\/p>\n

Juan Nunez was one of the first business owners to receive financial assistance under the administration\u2019s Maryland Business Recovery<\/a><\/strong> program. To date, the program has provided more than $1.28 million in 44 loans. An additional three loans are expected to close in the coming weeks for $105,000.<\/p>\n

Those figures provide a snapshot of the Hogan administration\u2019s quick response to the unrest. Governor Hogan put the resources of state government to work to help ensure that Baltimore rebounded better and stronger than ever from the unrest that shook the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the unrest in Baltimore broke out, my administration worked around the clock to restore calm and to listen to city residents, small business owners and community leaders to gain a better understanding of the issues they face,\u201d Governor Larry Hogan said.\u00a0 \u201cBy harnessing the resources of the state, Baltimore was able to recover more quickly. These loans saved jobs and small businesses.\u00a0 While there is still much more work to do, my administration will continue to work to change Baltimore, and Maryland, for the better.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the unrest, Nunez said that his business suffered a significant decrease in customer traffic during the city\u2019s curfew and he didn\u2019t know where to turn to for help. It wasn\u2019t until he met with staff from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development during an information session at Baltimore\u2019s Latin Palace in May that he began to feel some sense of support. The department had convened Hispanic business owners at the Highlandtown restaurant to acquaint them with the new program, help cut through red tape and take applications. Staff members participated in a meeting that same evening with Korean American business owners and First Lady Yumi Hogan at a church in Columbia that was coordinated by the Governor\u2019s Office of Minority Affairs.<\/p>\n

Nunez, who has been in business since 2010, eventually received a $15,000 zero-interest microenterprise loan that he used to compensate his employees for a week\u2019s worth of lost wages, restock and perform security enhancements.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo sales meant no revenue,\u201d he said. \u201cThe loan allowed me to take care of my staff and maintain business until things got back to normal. \u00a0It didn\u2019t put the entire burden on me. It was a lifesaver.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Maryland Business Recovery program\u2019s microloans were adapted from the housing and community development agency\u2019s Neighborhood BusinessWorks<\/a>program, which provides gap financing to new or expanding small businesses and nonprofit organizations in Sustainable Communities throughout the state.<\/p>\n

Maryland Business Recovery offered affected businesses zero interest loans with the opportunity for forgiveness if certain benchmarks are met. The program closed on Sept\u200b.1, 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur agency was one of the first on the ground with funds available to help get businesses back in business in their communities,\u201d Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Kenneth C. Holt said.\u00a0 \u201cThanks to the Hogan \u200badministration\u2019s prompt response, many businesses have been able to reopen with the capital they needed to restock and recover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governor Hogan has also provided additional funding for homeownership assistance programs and targeted assistance for significant fa\u00e7ade improvements for impacted Baltimore City structures in an effort to create a more economically and architecturally appealing streetscape.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt was a lifesaver\u201d says one owner about zero-interest loans that helped small business owners remain in business, care for employees BALTIMORE \u2013 Tops in Cellular, a mobile electronics and accessories store in the city\u2019s Highlandtown community, is open for business thanks in part to a Hogan administration program established to help business owners recover  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,51,25,33,28],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-8258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-governor-hogan","category-maryland-business-recovery-program","category-neighborhood-businessworks","category-press-releases","category-small-business-development","tag-baltimore"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8258"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8469,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8258\/revisions\/8469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dhcd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}