The Concord City Council has approved $1 million in funding to create a commercial rent relief program for local businesses.
The Measure V Commercial Rent Relief Program will provide one-time grants of $10,000 to local small businesses that have experienced considerable financial challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To apply to the program, small businesses must have at least $10,000 in commercial rent arrears accumulated due to the pandemic and meet the eligibility requirements listed below.
Priority will be given to retail businesses, restaurants and personal service establishments, specifically hair salons and barber shops, nail salons, day spas and fitness studios.
Grant recipients will receive a commercial rent relief grant of $10,000, paid directly to the landlord.
The grant does not have to be paid back. However, both tenants and landlords are required to participate in the grant application.
Applications open Monday, April 26 at 8 a.m. and close on Friday, May 14 at 5 p.m. Applicants will receive a status notification by email on Friday, May 21.
On Wednesday, April 21 at 2 p.m., the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce will host a webinar to help small business owners and landlords better understand the program and complete their applications.
To be eligible for the program, businesses must have:
- A physical location within Concord city limits;
- An active Concord business license issued no later than June 30, 2020;
- No more than 25 employees as of June 30, 2020;
- At least $10,000 in commercial rent arrears from March 31, 2020 to March 31, 2021, consistent with the Concord Eviction Moratorium; and
- A commercial lease showing the business as the master tenant.
To receive funding through the program, landlords must:
- Apply grant funds to applicant’s rent arrears immediately upon request;
- Declare intent to continue leasing tenant in current space through 2021;
- Attest that reported rent arrears are deferred payments consistent with the Concord Eviction Moratorium;
- Attest the applicant is a master leased tenant at the business address provided;
- Provide the Concord business license number; and
- Sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) confirming all the above information at the time of application.
For more information on the program and to stay up to date on all the latest news and resources available, visit the Commercial Rent Relief Program page.
maybe allow the businesses to reopen fully so they can earn moneys and pay their employees
We’ve got a wild one here!!!!
The City simply cannot afford to keep giving money away.
There are adequate Federal and state funds available.
The City simply does not have the money.
The City Council is being reckless with City Funds to the detriment of the good people of Concord.
Where is this $1M coming from and what other services will be reduces or eliminated?
Or are new taxes in the works?
The City Council only listens to the people who donate the most to their champagnes.
In their eyes, the rest of the citizens can be damned.
The answer to your question is in the second paragraph.The money is coming from the 5% sales tax increase approved by the voters last November with the passing of Measure V.
I thought Concord was strapped for funds. Obviously they have a large slush fund hidden away. Time to examine their financials in detail…
huh, “adequate Federal and state funds available”, you mean taxes paid by those who are able and can work or does money just get created by magic?
I would guess all these funds are coming from the state and federal government. The State of California and the federal government have done a fine job trying to alleviate the human suffering the pandemic has caused, Gavin Newsom has done yeoman’s work, so has Joe Biden – he just got a 1.9 trillion dollar pandemic bill.
In SF Mayor London Breen spent 460 million dollars from the SF city budget to alleviate the human suffering caused by the pandemic – her work has been superb. Fortunately Breed is so tight with Nancy Pelosi they are getting almost all the money back SF spent from the fed’s – that’s great leadership.
The City of Concord, in contrast has done almost nothing to mitigate the human suffering going on. The big thing the City of Concord has done is raise taxes, money that is going to be earmarked to pay for the exorbitant salary and benefit packages of city workers (Concord city workers make an average of 30,000 more per worker than their counterparts in WC).. I mean you have this big health crises going on, the city raises taxes on taxpayers, but city officials then use the money to keep the “gravy train” going for themselves. Talk about corruption, Concord is a city steeped in corruption!
This million dollars for unpaid rent by local businesses is almost certainly coming from the state or the feds. The people running the city – all out of towners – could care less about Concord residents or taxpayers, that’s why we typically get little or nothing from the city government other than regular reports on how broke the city is.
Recently Concord has done a few things to help local residents suffering from the pandemic out – they just passed a law ordering big supermarkets to pay 5 more bucks an hour for supermarkets working during the pandemic, they also are making these grants available, but this is all coming months after other cities have done this stuff.
Concord, in my view, is only doing these things for PR reasons – they are doing just “enough” to make it look good. And they waited until the federal and state grants locked in before they did anything. Concord, in my view, is run by a bunch of cold hearted government paper pushers – all out of towners. These faceless paper pushers are primarily only interested in driving up their own benefit packages and doing as little work as possible.
That wasn’t the case when Bud Stewart was running the city. He kept salaries at the city low – very low – and he took the savings and built parks, he built Camp Concord, he built the Concord Pavilion, he built Cowell Park, he built a city hall (now too small and antiquated)- the list of his accomplishments is a mile long
. This group running the city today? It took them like four years to build a single bathroom at Ellis Lake, and they only built the bathroom because Concord PD officers were complaining there was no bathroom in that part of Concord.