As the coronavirus delivered a shock to the local economy, 9,442 Prince George’s County businesses and nonprofits received emergency loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, including 1,447 loans valued between $150,000 to $10 million, according to data released by the Small Business Administration last week. Below this article, Route 1 Reporter presents a database that allows you to search for any Prince George’s County entity that received loans greater than $150,000 under the program.
The official dataset has been criticized for not providing enough information about the loans. For example: information on loans greater than $150,000 identifies the recipients by name, but only provides a broad range for the loan each received, in buckets ranging from between $150,000 to $350,000 to the top-tier, which received loans of between $5 million and $10 million. Meanwhile, exact dollar amounts for loans less than $150,000 were noted for every recipient, but their names were kept under wraps.
Additionally, transparency advocates – as well as many loan recipients – have complained the data released by the SBA contains inaccuracies. In particular, SBA officials said inconsistent data-collection practices show many loan recipients to reporting zero jobs were retained with the funds. Route 1 Reporter presents the data as is, with no alterations from the SBA record as of July 12.
Still, the numbers show an enormous influx of capital into local businesses and nonprofits. Nearly 7,750 Prince George’s County businesses and nonprofits received $261.1 million in small dollar loans valued less than $150,000 each. On top of that, the 1,447 big-dollar loans add up to between $661 million at the low end to $1.5 billion at the high end. Here’s how I’d ballpark it, if I were a betting man: If you were to draw a line down the middle of the range of the value of the loans this big-dollar group received, it would add up to approximately $1 billion.
And while carrying the significant caveats from earlier, these loan recipients will use the funds to retain at least 106,980 jobs, according to the available data. The loans are intended to be forgivable if the employers retain their workers through the coronavirus crisis.
Six Prince George’s County businesses received loans valued between $5 million and $10 million to save at least 2,208 jobs, including investment firm DAC Acquisition Co. in Laurel, recycler Smith Industries in Capitol Hill and military contractor Z Systems Inc., in Greenbelt. Eighty-three businesses or nonprofits received loans of between $2 million to $5 million, 149 received loans of between $1 million to $2 million, and 1,209 received loans of between $150,000 to $1 million.
Notably, 170 Prince George’s County nonprofits – which typically pay no taxes on their core charitable activities – received big-dollar loans under the program. Locally, several iconic Route 1 restaurant destinations took out loans under the program, including Franklin’s General Store and Deli and its nearby neighbor Busboys and Poets, which secured a loan of between $350,000 and $1 million,
Using the database below, you can search the full list of Prince George’s County businesses and nonprofits that received loans of more than $150,000.
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