The Small Business Administration will soon launch its much-anticipated $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund — and it promises to be far different than the beleaguered rollout of its Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program.
The SVOG program, open to venues and theater operators, saw its portal crash April 8 after it opened to applications. The portal is still down, although the agency said in an April 16 email it had identified the root causes of the problem and aimed to “reopen the portal by the end of next week.” We wrote about the draft application for the RRF here.
But the Restaurant Revitalization Fund will feature several ways for eligible businesses to apply, according to the SBA. That includes through the agency’s portal, over the phone or through various SBA “restaurant partners” that will include services vendors and payroll processors. The SBA also said it will establish a seven-day pilot period ahead of the launch of its portal where it will randomly select from among existing Paycheck Protection Program loan recipients to test the system.
