Pandemic-inspired mortgage/lease grant program a ‘resounding success’

The final numbers are in on Peoria Heights’ mortgage/lease loan program to help local businesses get over the hump of the coronavirus crisis, and they show that 82 businesses received more than $110,000 in assistance, an average of more than $1,280 apiece. The maximum grant was $1,500.

Village government launched the program in early May, with an application deadline of June 5. About 40 percent of the businesses eligible for the subsidy in the Heights’ two Business Development Districts (BDD), including those in the busy commercial corridors of Prospect Road and War Memorial Drive, received the assistance. Many had been largely shuttered since mid-March with much-diminished revenue streams, even as the bills kept coming.

“From what we’ve been able to gather anecdotally, it came just in the nick of time for many,” said Village Administrator Dustin Sutton, who called the effort a “resounding success.

“We’ve received quite a few compliments from our business leaders that Village leaders were willing to step up, to be a safety net, when their situations seemed most dire,” said Sutton. 

Hearth owner Hugh Higgins estimated in a recent Tower Talk broadcast that his revenues were 80 percent off and that his restaurant was “clawing and scratching to eke out a living” when both his most loyal customers and the Village stepped into the breach.

“I couldn’t be happier than being in the Heights. It’s just such a wonderful place to do business and to have a business. It’s just explosive. It’s a great community to be a part of,” said Higgins. 

“We’re still here.”

The overall breakdown of businesses that received help was 55 percent service industry such as restaurants, 41 percent retail, and the rest other, said Sutton. 

The Village had been prepared to spend as much as $330,000, which came out of funds generated within the two BDDs rather than out of the general operating budget. The dollars left over now go back into the designated BDD accounts, which not only means that they’re available for their original intended purpose, but that the Village could respond to another emergency, if need be, though Sutton said he hopes it doesn’t come to that. 

“We hope the worst of this is behind us,” he said, “but we’re prepared, just in case.”