These Tucson Restaurants Scored Restaurant Revitalization Money

TUCSON, AZ — Restaurants in Tucson were among the more than 1,300 in Arizona who received money from the Small Business Administration's Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which was passed by Congress last year as part of a sweeping coronavirus relief package.

A total of $294.476 million in funding was given to Arizona restaurants. But the 1,325 businesses that received funding under the program were just 33 percent of the 3,992 that applied to the program, which SBA is shutting down Wednesday.

A total of 201 Tucson businesses received SBA funding, with grants ranging from $1,163.13 to $3.193 million.

The Tucson grant recipients were:

But restaurants across the country are facing an uncertain future after the U.S. Small Business Administration said last month it was shutting down the Restaurant Revitalization Fund passed by Congress as part of the coronavirus relief package.

“For a hundred thousand restaurants, the R.R.F. has made their future clear and stable, but for the more than 200,000 operators shut out of funding, receiving this letter today only heightens their fear and anger,” Sean Kennedy, a spokesman for the National Restaurant Association, told The New York Times. “We need Congress to act.”

In an email to applicants last month, the SBA said the program will be "disabled" July 14. At that time, it will stop accepting applications. Nationally, the program has handed out grants to 105,000 restaurants, but another 265,000 applicants are still waiting. A bill to replenish the fund has been introduced in Congress, but it has not moved forward.

Despite restaurant industry lobbying for Congress to replenish the fund, lawmakers have been more focused on reaching a compromise on the Biden administration's infrastructure improvement bill.

Patch has reached out to the Arizona Restaurant Association for comment and will update this story once they respond.