Merced McDonald’s owner has one of two largest coronavirus relief loans in the Valley
A Merced-based corporation that owns more than 20 McDonald’s locations got one of the top two largest federal COVID-19 relief loans in the central San Joaquin Valley worth potentially up to $10 million, according to data released by the U.S. Small Business Administration..
ALIA Corp. is a company owned by John Abbate, who runs the business with a number of other relatives. Asked about the loan on Thursday, Abbate directed inquiries to the corporate McDonald’s email address.
Loans of more than $150,000, which went to 142 central San Joaquin Valley restaurants, were reported in ranges, but the dollar amounts were not specified in data released by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
ALIA pulled down a loan that fell in the $5 million-to-$10 million range, the same size as Visalia-based RLMK Inc.
Each of the two companies owns several McDonald’s locations and the money is expected to save 500 jobs apiece, according to loan records.
Six other Merced businesses and two in Atwater also got loans between $150,000 and $1 million. In Merced County, 109 businesses got loans of less than $150,000.
Through the end of June, more than 1,000 restaurants across the central San Joaquin Valley received loans through two rounds of the PPP, part of the massive CARES Act passed by Congress to provide relief from economic damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The vast majority of those businesses — 904 of them — received under $150,000 in loans backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The SBA has not released the names of companies that received those smaller loans
Many restaurant owners are struggling with uncertainty after they were forced to close indoor dining, re-opened and then closed again, according to Chuck Van Fleet, owner of Vino Grille & Spirits and president of the Fresno chapter of the California Restaurant Association.
“Without the PPP, I don’t know where we’d be,” Van Fleet said on Thursday.
Collectively, the smaller loans added up to $35.9 million, and were expected to help keep paychecks coming for nearly 9,200 employees in those businesses.
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
