ROGERS, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — At the beginning of this month, the U.S. Small Business Administration opened a business recovery center in Rogers to help both businesses and homeowners impacted by the Memorial Day weekend tornado and has since seen nearly 400 loan applications.
SBA offers physical damage and economic injury disaster loans. The economic injury disaster loans are for businesses that may not have suffered physical damage but are starting to see a loss in revenue.
“Then you see in the next three, four, six months, up to nine months, you have to see if your sales are going down because now your community is focusing on purchasing materials to repair their homes,” said Africa Rosas, public affairs specialist for SBA.
Rosas says the center has received hundreds of applications since its opening.
“So for businesses, we have received almost 150 applications in total with homeowners and renters, almost 400 applications. And we have already approved more than $2.6 million in loans,” said Rosas.
Rosas says SBA is here for the long haul.
“As long as we see the need for us to be here, as long as we see traffic, people coming to our centers to open new applications or if they still need more help, we will always be here,” said Rosas.
Eventually, the recovery center will close down in Rogers. However, you can still receive help.
“We still have our district office in Little Rock, and we have reserve partners here in the region that we partially fund to help small businesses succeed beyond the disaster,” said Rosas.
She says it is important to get into the SBA system. The physical damage application deadline is July 29. Economic injury applications are due March 3, 2025.
