The Oregon Legislative Emergency Board allocated $100 million to Business Oregon for a new program to provide financial assistance to small businesses and commercial landlords impacted by the economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program, which opened for applications on March 8, provides grants to building owners to cover outstanding lease payments from small business tenants that are behind on rent due to COVID-19. The grants can go up to $100,000 per each business tenant lease, but not more than $3 million for each landlord. The landlord must agree not to evict the tenant for six months and waive any rights to collect outstanding penalties or interest or enforce eviction clauses related to the delinquent lease payments between March 1, 2020 and Feb. 28, 2021.
The program is intended to help small business tenants that have 100 or fewer employees. The agreement will include additional protections for tenants, such as non-eviction clauses, and a waiver of penalties and interest.
Both the business tenant and property owner will need to participate in the application process and sign the grant agreement, but the initial application needs to be completed by the landlord.
The application period will be open for two weeks, with eligible submissions chosen by a lottery system that will also ensure geographic distribution across all regions of the state. The program is split into two rounds, the first $50 million will be allocated in the application period that is currently open The remaining will be used in an additional application period that will open in late April. Unsuccessful (but eligible) applicants from the first round will automatically be considered in the second round, as will any new round two applicants.
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Next week the Umatilla Electric Cooperative’s Business Resource Center will be trained to answer any questions you may have.
For more information, call the resource center at (541) 289-3000 or email uecbrc@gmail.com.
