Last week the City of St. Petersburg created the Fighting Chance Fund – an emergency grant for locally owned and independently operated small businesses impacted by COVID-19.

The fund is expected to provide critical support to about 1,000 restaurant, bar, retail, and service-based businesses and their more than 3,000 eligible employees to offset the temporary loss of revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eligibility
The Fighting Chance Fund is a City program that provides grants, NOT loans, in the amount of $5,000 to impacted eligible businesses and $500 to impacted eligible individuals. These are limited funds that will be distributed on a first-submitted and correctly completed application basis. There is no deadline to apply. The City has allocated $6.8 million for this fund and applications will be accepted until funds are exhausted.

Small Businesses
Applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Local owned and independently operated
• Physically established in the city of St. Petersburg
• Must be at least 50% locally owned by residents of St. Petersburg
• Must be operating within the defined impacted eligible industries
• Have 25 employees or fewer
• Affirm a loss of revenue due to COVID-19
• Must be able to demonstrate working capital for business operations as of February 28, 2020 (as demonstrated in the Balance Sheet or other documentation deemed acceptable by the City)

Business applicants must include the following:

• State of Florida business registration from the Florida Division of Corporation 
• Business Financials
  • Sole Proprietors
    • Schedule C
    • Most recent Annual or Quarterly Balance Sheet or Profit & Loss Statement
  • All other ownership types
    • Most recent Federal Corporate Income Tax Return (Form 1120S)
    • Most recent Annual or Quarterly Balance Sheet or Profit & Loss Statement
• Current St. Petersburg Business Tax Receipt (Check your status on the City’s Business Tax Division webpage)
• Copy of Driver’s License, state id, school id (with photo), voter registration, or passport
• Full employee list (as of January 31, 2020 and March 31, 2020)
• Copy of most recent St. Petersburg Utility Bill statement
• If applicant does not pay Utility Bill, provide current General Liability Insurance Policy. (ACCORD form or other acceptable form showing commercial address)

Impacted Individuals
Applicants must meet the following requirements:

• Currently or formerly an employee at a local owned and independently operated small business physically located in the city of St. Petersburg with 25 employees or fewer  (Check if your employer’s business address meets eligibility)
• Be an employee residing in St. Petersburg
• Terminated, furloughed or experienced a salary reduction of at least 50% after March 17, 2020
• Must be/have been an employee of a business operating within the defined impacted eligible industries*

Individual applicants must provide the following:

• Copy of Driver’s License, state ID, school photo ID, voter registration, or passport
• Copy of your pay stubs from March 1, 2020 to the present
• Termination Letter (if available)

Defined Impacted Eligible Industries

• Restaurant (includes full-service, limited-service, and café establishments)
• Bar
• Retail (physical brick-and-mortar establishment selling merchandise)
• Personal Service: 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
• Event spaces & services

Grant Use
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 contact your financial advisor or accountant 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 (March, April, May 2020)
• Commercial Mortgage payments (March, April, May 2020)
• 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 a temporary digital transition (e.g. webcams for virtual trainings, software licensing for videoconferencing, etc.)

A Time of Pulling Together

This pandemic calls on each of us to put aside our differences and look out for one another. It presents us with a serious health and economic challenge and deserves to be taken with the utmost seriousness. But, it is not a time to panic. Working together, and with American resilience, we can overcome COVID-19.

Estelia and Your Real Estate Needs

I’d like you to know that I’m upping my quest to be kind and to reach out to family, friends, clients and associates. I’m working from home and am available to discuss any of your real estate needs or concerns such as what you can do to prepare to list or buy a home, how to get a loan process started, and a host of other things. We can face time, Zoom call or you can give me a virtual tour of your home.

Yes, our lives are impacted by COVID-19, but it doesn’t mean we can’t plan. Together we are learning to adapt to virtual technology and are making great strides. With over 20 years of experience in real estate, I’ve learned to think out of the box – so please don’t hesitate to give me a text or call 727.686.2859.

If you’re interested in any of these of communities or live in one of them and are thinking of selling, call Estelia today!

Allendale Terrace
Bahama Shores
Bayway Isles
Coquina Key
Crescent Heights
Crescent Lake
Downtown
Greater Pinellas Point
Historic Kenwood
Historic Old Northeast
Historic Roser Park
Historic Uptown
Isla del Sol
Old Southeast
Placida Bayou
Snell Isle