Over 4,100 San Francisco North Bay small businesses get coronavirus-relief payroll loans
More than 4,100 federally-supported Paycheck Protection Program loans totaling at least $1.4 billion were processed in Sonoma, Napa, Marin, Mendocino, Lake and Solano counties.
The U.S. Small Business Administration put the number of “jobs saved” in the area at 169,532 in the effort that began in April to help with the devastating number of positions lost as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After much public demand that it release figures nationally, the SBA reported Monday results from the $660 billion effort. That included the details involving 231 North Bay lenders, from 5 Star and Ally to Zion’s, which wrote and oversaw PPP loans of at least $150,000. Some companies got less than that to help pay salaries of their workforces. The highest amount for a single loan could amount to $10 million, but the North Bay’s biggest recipients received amounts ranging from $5 million to $10 million.
The U.S. Treasury declined to release specific, to-the-dollar amounts citing the risk of putting out proprietary information. It also only released data pertaining to loans of over $150,000.
Of all applications processed, North Bay banks shelled out 93 loans valued at $2 million to $5 million, which included Sonoma Media Investments, the North Bay Business Journal’s parent company. The program provided $5 million to $10 million loans to these 18 local businesses:
- Dutra Group, from Beverly Bank & Trust Co.
- Il Fornaio, from Signature Bank
- Francis Ford Coppola Presents, from American Ag Credit
- Ghilotti Construction, from BMO Harris Bank
- Hospice by the Bay, from Bank of Marin
- Mendocino Community Health Clinic, from Savings Bank of Mendocino County
- Mariana Packing Co., from River City Bank
- Meyer Corporation, from MUFG Union Bank
- Nes America, from East West Bank
- O’Reilly Media from Silicon Valley Bank
- Petaluma Health Center, from Bank of the West
- Royal City Bell, from Bank of America
- Sonic.Net from Bank of America
- Star H-R, from Bank of the West
- Township Building Services, from MUFG Union Bank
- Vintage Wine Estates, from Bank of the West
- W. Bradley Electric, from Tri Cos. Bank
- Ygrene Energy Fund, from Summit State Bank
Business sectors and agencies ranging from air conditioning and auto repair to touring and wineries benefited from the federal program.
Wineries, which saw visitor counts plummet after a shutdown in tasting rooms starting in March, were among major recipients of low-interest loans. Silver Oak Cellars received $2 million from JP Morgan Chase to cover its payroll. The same amount was doled out from Mechanics Bank to the Jean Charles Boisset Collection as well as the Hess Collection through the efforts of Signature Bank.
Once the measure was hurried through the U.S. Congress and signed by U.S. President Donald Trump in April, applications flooded banks. A few North Bay bank managers had described a rushed, through-the-night scene in which employees worked around the clock to interpret ongoing changes to the program then get the loans through.
In particular, Summit State Bank closed on 527 loans amounting to $95 million by the end of May. The community bank’s loans averaging a balance of $180,000 were reported by the SBA to support more than 6,000 jobs.
“When you think of an average of $180,000, by and large, these are not big payroll companies,” Summit State Bank President and CEO Brian Reed told the Business Journal.
Reed indicated the bank has reached out to its accounts on a regular basis, from the time the program was offered to today’s focus on loan forgiveness for clients. Loans are forgiven if the companies maintain at least three-quarters of their staffs as indicated in the application listed here.
Many small firms applied with the assumption their loans would be forgiven, Reed pointed out. Very few applications were denied. It was all up to whether the companies qualified.
“As long as they adhere to the parameters, there’s not much risk,” Reed said.
The entire debacle generated by the coronavirus outbreak made government intervention an absolute necessity in the eyes of the bankers, much less business owners and members of the public.
“We can’t have a wholesale exodus of businesses,” he said.
The federal government was scrutinized and criticized for doling out taxpayer money to large corporations and even companies with affiliations to congressional members and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Still, the Santa Rosa-based community bank contends its “customer base is primarily small business and nonprofits, and that is who we lent the money to,” the lending team said in a statement.
