Aurora STABLE Fund To Award Small Biz Loans Starting Monday

AURORA, IL — More than 80 small business in Aurora can expect a helping hand from the city’s STABLE Fund over the coming weeks, with officials planning to begin announcing awardees Monday.

Invest Aurora President and CEO Bryan Gay said the fund will notify 10 businesses each day that they have been selected for a loan, with officials looking to award five loans to downtown businesses and five to businesses outside the downtown area to maintain parity. All businesses that applied will be notified by mid-June.

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The city partnered with Invest Aurora and the Aurora Regional Chamber of Commerce at the end of April to launch the $1.4 million loan program to support small businesses facing unprecedented challenges amid the coronavirus pandemic.

To be eligible, businesses must be located within the City of Aurora, employ no more than 50 people and have been operating for at least three months to receive consideration. Businesses with five or fewer employees, including business owners, are eligible for grants of up to $15,000, while businesses that employ more than five employees are eligible for up to $25,000.

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During the two-week application period last month, 261 businesses in the city requested funding help, Gay told the Aurora City Council. The fund received 114 applications from businesses in the city’s Neighborhood Redevelopment Strategy Area — which includes downtown Aurora and the immediate surrounding areas — and 147 applications from businesses outside the NRSA, Gay said.

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Downtown businesses requested a total of $1.77 million, at an average of about $15,500 per business, while non-NRSA businesses requested $2.68 million, with an average of about $18,200 per business, Gay said. The STABLE Fund has $1.4 million to award in small-business loans, meaning the city can only cover about 31 percent of the small-business-loan applications.

The fund will initially distribute a third of each loan awarded to businesses, as the loan program is only half-funded while the city waits for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to release another $700,000. Officials are hopeful that funding will be received near the end of June, Gay said.

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Creating the STABLE Fund and reaching out to businesses to help them apply for funding “was a truly monumental task,” Gay said, noting the efforts of Aurora city officials and staff, and leaders at Invest Aurora, the Aurora Regional Chamber of Commerce, Aurora Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Quad County African-American Chamber of Commerce.

“Everybody rose to the occasion and did an amazing job,” Gay said.