City of Pinellas Park providing small business relief funds starting Tuesday
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Small businesses in Pinellas Park that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic can seek relief funds from the city.
The city of Pinellas Park has established the "Small Business Relief Fund" to provide grants to eligible small businesses within the city. Those businesses can begin applying at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, April 21.
Eligible applicants include businesses that are physically established in the city and have 25 employees or fewer. They must also:
- Affirm a loss of 50% or more of revenue due to COVID‐19
- Locally owned and independently operated
- Must have at least 50% ownership of business
- Must be operating within the defined impacted eligible industries
- Must be able to demonstrate working capital for business operations as of February 28, 2020
Impacted industries include: restaurants, bars, retails and personal services like hair salons and gyms.
City officials stressed that this is not a loan and does not need to be paid back. Financial assistance in the amount of $2,500 could be provided to businesses.
The grants will be awarded based on the availability of funds, program guidelines, and the submission of all required information and supporting documentation. Applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis.
The program will close once funds are depleted.
Hard copies of the application are available at the Technical Services Building in an outside pickup box, and can be dropped off in the outside dropbox. The building is located at 6051 78th Avenue North in Pinellas Park.
City officials said hard copies of the application will have a longer processing period. It's unclear whether applications can be submitted online, but according to a social media post on the city's Facebook page, "The application process will be open on Tuesday April 21st & the City will be posting a link to the application at that time."
For additional questions on the application process, business owners can contact the Economic Development department by calling 727-369-5619 or email at EDteam@pinellas‐park.com.
Additional information on the relief fund can be found on the City of Pinellas Park's website.