Coronavirus Recovery Grants Approved for 300+ Alexandria Businesses

More than 300 businesses across Alexandria are about to receive grants to help them through the city’s sluggish recovery from COVID-19.

Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP) announced that 309 small businesses in Alexandria would receive funding from the city’s Alelxandria Back to Business (ALX B2B) grants program. The program is supported in large part by CARES Act funding allocated by the City of Alexandria.

“76 percent of successful applicants qualify to receive $10,000, another 17 percent will collect $15,000, with the remaining 7 percent receiving $20,000,” AEDP said in a press release. “The grant amount is directly related to the size of the business.”

The ALX B2B program totals $4.4 million in local business assistance grants, $2.4 million of which came from federal CARES Act appropriations and $2 million from the Alexandria Investment Fund.

“In total, AEDP received 356 complete applications. 309 businesses qualified for funding through the program,” the partnership said. “Of the 48 applicants that did not qualify, most were ineligible due to the total number of employees being outside of the 2-100 employee requirement; delinquent city business taxes; their year-over-year revenue not meeting the stipulation of having decreased by at least 25 percent; or being located outside the corporate limits of the City of Alexandria.”

Recipients of the grants are being notified, after which AEDP said it will publish a list of grantees to the website.

AEDP said there is $900,000 in funding remaining from the initial round of the program, which the partnership hopes to put into a second round of the program with more CARES Act funding later this summer.

The press release also included a breakdown of demographics on what types of businesses the grants went to. Nearly half of the grant recipients were white.

• 49% of recipients identified as White
• 22% of recipients identified as Asian
• 8% of recipients identified as Hispanic or Latin American
• 6% of recipients identified as Black or African American
• 15% chose not to disclose

AEDP noted that 49% of the recipients identified as male, while 40% identified as female, 10% did not disclose and 1% identified as transgender or non-gender conforming. AEDP said grant recipients spanned seven zip codes, including a sizable portion in the city’s West End.

“The COVID-19 pandemic poses significant challenges to businesses across the Washington, D.C. region, and Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, with the support of the City of Alexandria, is pleased to provide critical financial support to Alexandria’s small businesses during this difficult period,” Stephanie Landrum, President and CEO of the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, said in the press release. “Alexandria’s business community continues to demonstrate resilience in the face of adversity, and AEDP is proud to support our community during the road to recovery.”

For businesses that receive grant funding, there are still restriction on how that can be used, including. According to AEDP, funding can be used for:

1. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
2. Other equipment and supplies to promote health and safety
3. Technology to facilitate e-commerce and/or virtual business operations
4. Professional services related to the design and construction/alteration of the built environment necessary to promote physical and social distancing, as well as the actual costs for alterations
5. Initial cleaning and disinfection services prior to reopening
6. Rent or mortgage costs required to be made in order to reopen/restart

Staff photo by Vernon Miles