Fresno, Valley businesses got billions in COVID relief loans. Here’s who received the aid
When the threat of the novel coronavirus first prompted broad shutdowns of many retailers, restaurants and others, Congress quickly enacted a massive federal loan program to help businesses keep employees on the payroll and stay afloat in the pandemic.
The Paycheck Protection Program provided forgivable loans to thousands of businesses in Fresno County and surrounding central San Joaquin Valley counties, all with the goal of making ends meet for two months of payroll and other expenses such as rent and utilities.
About 19,000 companies in Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties received almost $2.3 billion in the loans. In return for the loans, the recipients reported that the money would help them retain more than 254,000 workers.
Many small businesses initially had a hard time getting loans before the first installment of federal cash was exhausted within just a couple of weeks of the program’s launch in early April. The first loans under the program were issued months ago, and for many businesses that received loans – ranging from as little as $166 to as much as $10 million – that money is long gone.
The House and Senate passed another coronavirus relief package late Monday. While smaller than the massive $2.2 trillion CARES Act from March, the new $900 billion deal includes supplemental benefits for unemployment, direct checks to many Americans, and a new round of Paycheck Protection Program funding of $284 billion.
That’s just a little over half of the $525 billion that was provided in loans under the first PPP effort, which officially closed in early August.
But with the pandemic now in its 10th month, a surge in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is rising even faster than in the spring and summer. With a new round of sweeping stay-at-home orders and business closures, the new aid package represents at least some help that business owners had been hoping for from the federal government before it’s too late.
Who got loans, and how much?
Until earlier this month, the U.S. Small Business Administration withheld details on the identities of businesses that received less than $150,000 from the PPP over the spring and summer, as well as specific loan values for businesses receiving loans of $150,000 to $10 million. Now, data shows exactly who got what under the Paycheck Protection Program.
The Fresno Bee has compiled an interactive online database where readers can see which businesses received loans, as well as how much they received, and how many employees they pledged to keep paying for two months after the loan date.
The Valley’s agriculture industry was by far the biggest beneficiary, in terms of the number of loans, the total value of loans, and the number of employees that companies pledged to keep paying with their loans. More than 2,200 farms, ranches, dairies and associated production-support companies were awarded about $432.7 million in loans, reportedly retaining about 61,000 workers on the job.
Other industry sectors that received at least $100 million in total PPP assistance in the Valley included:
Construction: $273.8 million across 1,555 businesses, retaining 20,994 employees.
Health care and social assistance: $266.9 million across 2,070 businesses, retaining 26,539 employees.
Manufacturing: $186.6 million across 752 businesses, retaining 16,063 employees.
Professional, scientific, technical services: $176.9 million across 1,658 businesses, retaining 16,006 employees.
Retail trade: $159.3 million across 1,879 businesses, retaining 18,087 employees.
Accommodations and food services: $122.4 million across 1,315 businesses, retaining 22,226 employees.
Wholesale trade: $118.5 million across 564 businesses, retaining 9,684 employees.
Other services: $102.9 million across 1,839 businesses, retaining 13,348 employees. “Other services” include such enterprises as “equipment and machinery repairing, promoting or administering religious activities, grantmaking, advocacy, and providing drycleaning and laundry services, personal care services, death care services, pet care services, photofinishing services, temporary parking services, and dating services,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Transportation and warehousing: $100.8 million across 1,335 businesses, retaining 9.313 employees.
The largest single loan recipients in the region, each getting the maximum amount of $10 million, were Producers Dairy Foods in Fresno and Pacific Farm Management Inc. in Madera.
Eight businesses in the region received loans of between $5 million and $7.5 million; 15 were in the $4 million to $5 million range; and 21 were in the $3 million to $4 million range. More than 320 businesses received loans $1 million to $3 million each.
In addition to Producers Dairy and Pacific Farm Management, the top 10 loan recipients in the region were:
- American Incorporated, a Visalia construction company, $7.4 million.
- Saladino’s Inc., a Fresno food wholesaler, $6.5 million.
- The nonprofit Diocese of Fresno Education Corporation, $6.1 million.
- Alia Corp, a Merced restaurant company that operates McDonald’s fast-food franchises, $5.9 million.
- Western Milling, a Visalia agribusiness and feed company, $5.6 million
- RLMK Inc., a Visalia franchisee of multiple McDonald’s fast-food restaurants, $5.3 million.
- Titan Ag Services, a Tipton farm labor contractor, $5.3 million.
- Exclusive Wireless Inc., a Fresno-based mobile phone retailer, $5.2 million.
Nonprofit organizations accounted for 544 of the loans, from religious institutions to health, family and social services, shelters, charitable foundations and more. In addition to the Roman Catholic Diocese’s Education Corporation, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Fresno received a separate $3.9 million loan as a religious organization or institution.
Other notable nonprofits receiving substantial PPP loans in the spring and summer were Kings View, a Fresno-based provider of mental-health services, $4.2 million; Camarena Health, a Madera health-care business, $4.2 million; and Valley Health Team Inc. in San Joaquin, an operator of health-care centers, $3.3 million.
Nonprofits not associated with operating medical or mental-health clinics included Hume Lake Christian Camps Inc., $2 million; Central California Blood Center in Fresno, $1.8 million; Inspire Charter School - Central in Fresno, $1.7 million; and Fresno’s Chaffee Zoo Corporation, $1.7 million.
The lion’s share of the loans – almost 16,000 of them – were for $150,000 or less; collectively, they added up to almost $600 million and, according to program data from the SBA, were to retain more than 85,700 workers. Of those, 825 were self-employed business owners.
The loan recipients spanned the five county region from Ahwahnee in the Madera County foothills to Woodlake in Tulare County. Businesses in Fresno, the region’s largest city, received more than 7,300 loans, or about 39% of the total number. Those loans added up to almost $909 million, or about 40% of the total value of loans made businesses in the region.
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
