Closed Main Line Restaurant Got Millions In PPP Loans

WYNNEWOOD, PA — Millions of Paycheck Protection Program funds were issued to a Main Line restaurant that hasn't been open for nearly a decade.

When PPP loans allotments were announced in July, Buca Restaurants Inc. — owner of the Italian restaurant chain Buca Di Beppo — in Wynnewood got the highest amount in Ardmore, Merion, and Wynnewood.

The group was awarded between $5 million and $10 million from the program.

A total of $20.7 billion in loans from the program were distributed in Pennsylvania, protecting 1.8 million jobs, the SBA said in its most recent report on the program. The loans will be forgiven if businesses keep employees on the payroll.

The problem is the Wynnewood Buca Di Beppo has not been open since 2013.

Patch reported the restaurant closed its doors on Jan. 6, 2013 after opening in 2010.

U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon sent a series of oversight letters to the Small Business Administration (SBA), PNC Bank, and Buca Restaurants, Inc about the PPP loan.

"It is important that we conduct thorough oversight of the funds that have already been dispersed so that future funds can be fairly and effectively distributed," she wrote in the letter. "I am particularly concerned that the loan for Buca Restaurants Inc. lists an address in my district that is neither its registered business address nor its headquarters, and was the site of a Buca di Beppo restaurant that has been closed for seven years."

Data from the SBA claimed the loan saved 500 Buca di Beppo jobs in Scanlon's that do not exist.

A representative from Buca Restaurants Inc. told Patch the funds were listed as going to the former Wynnewood location due to a technical error in PNC's system that still featured the 260 Lancaster Ave., Wynnewood address.

The PPP loan paperwork filled out by Buca Restaurants Inc. was done properly using the correct addresses for operational restaurants, the representative said. But PNC's automated system reverted back to the old address.

The loans awarded to Buca Restaurants Inc. were eventually disbursed to 38 operational Buca Di Beppo restaurants, the representative said.

PNC didn't provide comment to Patch on the allotment, but did say steps have been taken to address it.

Patch has reached out to the SBA and Scanlon for more information on the allotment.