Lake Forest, Lake Bluff Business Granted COVID-19 Relief

LAKE BLUFF, IL — Nearly half of the quarter-billion dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds allocated to Illinois' Back to Business grant program have been distributed, state officials announced.

The Back to Business, or B2B, program has provided 2,913 grants totaling more than $111 million to small businesses located in Lake Forest, Lake Bluff and more than 300 other towns across Illinois since the first round of grantees was announced in September.

Grants range from $5,000 to $150,000 — or up to $250,00 for hotels — depending on the degree of financial loss experienced by qualifying businesses.

Applications closed in October, but state officials will keep notifying businesses of the status of their applications until the rest of the $250 million in funds is depleted, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

"As of this week, we have provided nearly 3,000 small businesses with grants to cover their operating losses due to the pandemic," Sylvia Garcia, acting director of the commerce department, said in a statement. "We will continue to process applications on a rolling basis until all funds are awarded, delivering recovery dollars as quickly as possible to communities across Illinois and reinvigorating our economy."

As of Thursday, one business each in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff had received B2B grants.

Kathy's Alterations and Tailoring, 1353 N. Western Ave. in Lake Forest, received $10,000.

North Chicago Development, Ltd., the corporate owner of Sleep Inn Lake Bluff, 3250 Bittersweet Ave. in Lake Bluff, received $130,000..

Funding for the program comes from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, the $1.9 trillion economic relief package signed into law by President Joe Biden in March.

According to the Pritzker administration, it builds on the 2020 Business Interruption Grant program, or BIG, which distributed $580 million to small businesses and childcare providers.

Related: Nine Lake Forest, Lake Bluff Business Receive Grants From State

Among recipients of the B2B grants, 43 percent are businesses that applied to the BIG program but did not receive funding. Hard-hit industries such as taverns, hotels, arts organizations and salons accounted for 71 percent of grants, with 79 percent going to businesses with less than $1 million in annual revenues.

A full list of grantees and more information about the B2B program is available online.

Pritzker has leveraged $1.5 billion in federal ARPA funds during the current fiscal year to invest in the businesses hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to his office.

"The men and women of the General Assembly worked with me to craft the Back to Business program," Pritzker said in a statement. "These are not loans, so businesses getting help won't owe a cent back to the state."