Dear Brighton Beach Community,
As the situation surrounding COVID-19 is rapidly changing, please make sure to visit our Resources and Updates page on our website for updates as we receive them at https://bidbrightonbeach.com/category/coronavirus-update/. This page compiles information from government about new rules and guidance, relief and assistance, and also about businesses that are open to serve you in the neighborhood.
- *NEW* Last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that “NY State on PAUSE” will be extended to June 13th for regions that have not met all 7 requirements to begin the phased reopening.
- *NEW* PPP Loan Forgiveness Application – On Friday evening, the SBA released the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application which the businesses who already received funds from PPP must complete to determine the forgiveness amount. Please review and try to fill it out to ensure you have all them information ready to be submitted to your lender. Since the PPP loans are serviced by individual lenders, the Loan Forgiveness Application process may vary from lender to lender. We recommend reaching out proactively or look out for further instructions on how to submit this application from your specific lender.
- *NEW* PPP Loan Forgiveness Clarifications – The PPP Loan Forgiveness Application also clarified some of the confusions related how loan forgiveness works. Please refer to the document for all the information, but here is a list of the key items:
- Businesses now have to option of using the first day of the first payroll period immediately after the PPP Loan Disbursement Date as the beginning of the 8-week period, in addition to using the actual PPP Loan Disbursement Date.
- For the purpose of PPP Loan Forgiveness, “rent or lease payments” include those for real or personal property.
- Loan Forgiveness now covers eligible expenses paid or incurred during the 8-week period.
- In addition to these clarifications, more changes and new guidance might be coming soon. According to the Wall Street Journal, government officials and lawmakers are preparing to make significant changes to the PPP to give businesses more time and flexibility to spend the funds. We are going to monitor this development closely.
- *NEW* NYC Department of Small Business Services is re-launching their Neighborhood Challenge program as “Neighborhood Challenge: Connect & Recover” starting today! The re-launched neighborhood challenge program is an online open innovation platform that enables us to crowdsource your local challenges, build upon those submitted by others, and facilitate collaboration with the tech community on implementing viable pilot projects. Initial challenge submissions for the storefront business campaign will be due by June 1st. Click here for more information.
- *NEW* The New York City Council has approved a variety of different temporary relief measures for restaurants, including a 20% cap on delivery fees for restaurants. Click here to read more.
- *NEW* Tomorrow 5/19, Spectrum Reach is holding their next webinar “Looking Beyond; What’s next to help local businesses succeed?”. Click here for more information and to register.
- We would like to find out from you how your organization is doing through the impacts of COVID-19. We would appreciate if you would take this quick survey.
- Small Group Webinars to Address PPP Questions – We are hosting a number of Small Group Webinars focus on helping businesses understand the PPP application process and address questions related to the loan forgiveness. Interested businesses can sign up for the webinars via SBS Connect.
- Reminder to take the 2020 Census! See below or click here to get started.
