Several businesses in Gurnee have taken advantage of the its Small Business Capital Investment Program since it was introduced more than a year ago, and now the village is opening the program up so even more can apply for grants.
“The program has been successful,” Village Administrator Patrick Muetz said at a meeting Monday. “It’s kind of slowed down a little bit, so we have some ways to get that going again, and increase investment in the community.”
The program was first approved by the village Board of Trustees in November of 2021, as many small businesses were facing financial hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The board approved the allocation of $250,000.
The village has $180,000 left and is making changes to the program which will allow more businesses to become eligible for funding, as well as changing the scope of what projects will be eligible.
One of the major changes is that hotels will be able to apply for the grants. When the program was first implemented, hotels were ineligible as the program was only designated for businesses that generated sales tax, food and beverage tax or amusement tax for Gurnee.
The village is dividing the money that’s left into two different categories — with $80,000 to continue the funding of capital investment projects up to $10,000 each. Businesses that were only allowed one grant will now be able to reapply for additional funding.
Prior to the changes, businesses with eligible projects could apply retroactively for grants on any project that would be applicable for the program, and was completed after Jan. 1, 2020. Under the new stipulations, businesses would have to apply for projects and get approval for them before they’re undertaken, and no retroactive projects will be approved.
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The village will be dividing the remaining $100,000 into two $50,000 grants, called transformational grants, that can be used toward projects that cost more than $100,000 to complete.
To be eligible for such a grant, businesses within the village have to generate either sales, food and beverage, amusement or a hotel tax, and be up-to-date with all of their taxes that are paid to the village. They must also not be a business with more than 20 locations, unless it’s a hotel, or the business has incurred expenses to move to Gurnee.
Transformational grants can be used on projects including interior and exterior construction, parking lot improvements, facade improvements, exterior signage and plumbing, among others.
Any business looking to apply for one of the transformational grants can apply for the program between March 15 and April 30, and applications for the smaller grants will be accepted on a rolling basis until the funds are used up.
The amendment also limits the availability of the grants to applicants who aren’t receiving any other type of government support.
The changes to the program were first proposed at the board’s Jan. 30 Committee of the Whole meeting by the village’s management analyst Jodi Luka.
The board also saw some of the results of the program firsthand at Monday’s meeting, when it awarded Gurnee-based oil change service Fastlane Lube Masters a Green Gurnee Award because of the business’ environmentally friendly work to recycle its leftover oil.
“We burn our own oil for heat,” said Fastlane Lube Masters owner Morris Clement. “Every time we take in a car and we accumulate the oil, we burn it in our big furnace. That’s how we heat our facility.”
Clement said that the business was able to begin implementing this program because of the grant it received from the Small Business Capital Investment Grant Program. Due to the oil recycling project that Clement has at his business, Fastlane Lube Masters was the first recipient of the Green Gurnee Business Award, which the village initiated last year.