Spokane businesses get millions of state dollars in pandemic relief grants

Three and a half years after COVID emerged, the state of Washington recently sent more than $3 million to dozens of Spokane businesses hurt by the pandemic , the Department of Commerce announced Monday.

Seventy-three business owners in the city were among 1,500 across Washington that cashed checks written by the state government in its most recent wave of COVID relief funding.

Wild Sage Bistro on West Second Avenue was one of nine businesses in Spokane that received a grant exceeding $100,000. Owner Garth Hicks said he didn’t expect the state to send his business $129,000 when he applied for the grant.

“There was no ask, you just filled out a quick form,” he said. “I had no idea what amount the state would send. I was very pleasantly surprised.”

Sales at Wild Sage went down by roughly $2 million in 2020, Hicks said. The recent relief money means the locally owned bar and restaurant’s owners can now afford to remodel the dining room, buy a smoker for the kitchen and finally replace a barely functioning air conditioning unit. Redecorating and a fresh paint job are also on the to-do list.

“In COVID, we were working with a lot less of a parachute than we were in the past,” Hicks said. “As ownership, we’ve often taken over many of the responsibilities that would usually be done by employees because we haven’t had the funds to do it.”

Earlier this year, an email from the Washington Hospitality Association tipped Hicks off about the grant. The association sent a link to the online application that was due in April, he said. In June, he found out the state picked his restaurant as a recipient.

The state Legislature in 2022 granted $100 million to businesses as part of its Hospitality Grant Program. Recipients included restaurants, hotels and tourism establishments. Roughly $80 million from that pot was disbursed to businesses in 37 counties between April and June of this year.

Many businesses in counties considered “economically distressed” received grants, according to a news release sent out by the commerce department. For a county to be classified as distressed, its three-year unemployment rate had to be at least 20% higher than the statewide average. That threshold was 6.8% in 2022, according to the state Employment Security Department. Spokane County was just shy of being considered distressed in 2022 with a reported unemployment rate of 6.5%.

To the north, Pend Oreille County was classified as distressed under the state metric with a reported 8.6% unemployment rate in 2022. As was Stevens County with a reported 7.9% unemployment rate. Ferry County reported the highest unemployment rate in the state last year at 11.5%.

The remaining $20 million of the hospitality grant still sits in the state coffer but will likely be distributed to businesses sometime next year, state commerce director Mike Fong said. The money will go to the same industry with potential tweaks to the program, he said.

“There weren’t as many lodging establishments that were eligible for the funding as we anticipated,” Fong said. “We’re making some adjustments to try and get that additional money out the door.”

Recipients of the hospitality grant this year had to meet a set of criteria to be eligible. One requirement was that businesses had to demonstrate they experienced at least a 25% or greater loss in gross revenues between 2019 and 2020. Recipients had to be locally owned and operated establishments.

Across Washington, restaurant revenues saw a 30% drop between 2019 and 2020. And hotels saw a 60% drop in sales.

The pandemic impacted small businesses, and those with under 20 employees were hit the hardest. Most are still trying to recover from the blow.

Pandemic recovery is “mission critical” in Washington, Fong said. Businesses interested in applying for the next round of hospitality grants and other support should keep their eyes on the state Department of Commerce website.

On Aug. 8 and 9, Fong said he will visit Spokane and meet with small business owners, including recent grant recipients.