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BIG Program coming from city of Seguin

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today
BIG Program coming from city of Seguin

Manual Cevallos spoke during the council meeting about the changes he made in the Seguin Bar & Billiards building and the challenges he faced operating during the pandemic.He welcomed any help from the city of Seguin. Photo courtesy Manuel Cevallos.



(Seguin) — The city of Seguin wants local businesses to go big when it comes to making improvements to their operations or to their facilities. The Seguin City Council on Tuesday approved the creation of the Business Improvement Grant (BIG) Program.

The program calls for the city to set aside $250,000 to provide reimbursement grants to businesses that want to invest in their future. Seguin Economic Development Director Josh Schneuker says the money comes from federal CARES Act funding that the city received during the pandemic. Schneuker says the idea is similar to the city’s Fix-It Facade Grant Program, that is used for businesses in the downtown area.

“This is a reimbursement based grant program aimed at the development and expansion of business enterprises within the city of Seguin.”

“We think it has tremendous opportunity to help specifically our small businesses improve some maybe blighted areas of the community or business that might just need some improvement to see an increase in that property value, bringing new customers in the door,” said Schneuker.

Schneuker says the BIG program will provide matching funds that can be used in support of a number of business improvements. He says they have tried to make it flexible enough to help as many businesses as possible, and that’s one of the reasons why they also wanted to try to address some of those problems as well.

“It’s facade improvements. It’s going to be your general improvements to storefronts, sign improvements, new signs, replacement of existing signs, property improvements. This might be parking lot resurfacing, striping, fencing, sidewalk, landscaping — things like that to improve the aesthetics of the property there. Interior and or business machinery and equipment improvements. We all know that some of these buildings could some use substantial improvements on the interior with the interior infrastructure of that facility but also there are businesses that might need to make up upgrades in some of the equipment and technology that they have in order to better their customers and this is a grant that could be used to help get the business to make that up into those areas,” said Schneuker.

The BIG funds could also be used to help businesses recover from losses that were caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Schneuker says many businesses suffered significant financial losses and other challenges during the pandemic.

“We also included some items related to COVID and continuing to assist business and industries that were at most impacted by the COVID pandemic. So, there were certain businesses that had to make upgrades to their properties or to machinery and equipment or to the interior of their properties during the pandemic in order to better address the needs of customers, in order to adapt to what we have going on today in today’s society as a result of COVID. We would have the flexibility within this grant to leverage funding to support that and then also continuing to monitor and work with business and industries that continue to see financial disruptions as it relates to COVID so any sort of past due rent, utility payments — I know especially the bar industry was at adversely impacted with mixed beverage tax payments to the state during a time when they were forced to shut down and have limited occupancy so we have some flexibility to work with those businesses and those types of industries as well through this grant program,” said Schneuker.

The BIG program will require the businesses to make the initial investments upfront, and the city will then pay up to $10,000 to help cover approved expenses. The grant is designed to encourage businesses to reinvest in themselves, while also reinvesting in the community.

“Most of the projects associated with this grant will fall under the reimbursement upon completion of the project so if a business is improving their storefront, we would have of course reviewed that application up front and notify them that they are a recipient of the grant but those funds are not dispersed until we receive notification from the applicant that they have completed the project. We have certain items built into the grant guidelines of notification of completion of the project, written notice, photos, back up documentation and the ability for city staff to go out and physically inspect the project as well. Funding provided under the COVID section of this program, obviously some of those items — it’s not really an improvement project so we would request and review all sorts of backup documentation in order to determine that financial hardship to that business or industry and validate that they were adversely impacted,” said Schneuker.
Schneuker says they have created guidelines to determine eligibility for the grant funds. He says they wanted to have a process that allowed more businesses to seek help through this BIG program.

Owners of local restaurant, Su Casa Cafe were also present at the city council meeting to share their experience operating in Seguin. They said that the BIG Program would not only benefit their business, but all of Seguin. Photo Courtesy Su Casa Cafe Facebook page.

“We are looking at any for profit business facility within the city of Seguin. This includes commercial property owners and then also businesses that lease their space as well. They have the ability to be an applicant under this program. If you are a commercial tenant or a business tenant and you are making any sort of physical improvement to the facility, the grant would require that we have written authority from the property owner for them to commence with that improvement project and then again, if you are an applicant seeking funding under any of the COVID related item, we would need any sort of documentation classifying you within that industry and verifying again that hardship there,” said Schneuker.

There are some businesses that would not be eligible for the program. Schneuker explained those exclusions during Tuesday’s council meeting.

“Ineligible applicants would include businesses that operate out of their home, any applicants who have any sort of outstanding financial obligation to the city of Seguin — that might include liens or court fines, delinquent taxes, things like that. Applicants in the downtown historic district that might be applying and receiving any sort of funding under the Fix-It Facade Grant Program and also trying to apply for funds under this program as well would be in eligible in order to kind of prevent that double dipping there. And then, also applicants that received funding through the Seguin Strong Stimulus Program, we would require that they come into compliance. We had several recipients in that program that when we sent out kind of our annual reporting form associated with that grant group, did not provide that and did not follow up with our efforts to get that information. So if they were to receive funding, they would need to come into compliance in that area and then again, any applicant who has an outstanding lawsuit with the city of Seguin would be ineligible there,” said Schneuker.

Two members of the local business community applauded the city for trying to do more to help businesses during these challenging times. Former Councilman Manuel Cevallos, who now owns and operates Seguin Bar & Billiards on South River Street next to Seguin City Hall, says he was thrilled to hear this news. He says $10,000 is not a lot of money when you consider what’s been lost over the last year and a half, but he says every little bit helps. Cevallos says they started working on the bar long before anyone had heard of COVID-19. He says they spent time and money getting ready to open the bar, only to have it shut down by the state last spring and then again last summer. He says they made tons of improvements, and they paid their rent and any fees associated with operating a bar — that largely was closed for most of last year. He says they had some big expenses last year, and this could help them going forward.

“I had just gotten through putting in like $65,000 of improvements into that building. That used to be The Cranny. I don’t know if you ever walked through The Cranny and if you walk in now, it’s a big transformation,” said Cevallos.

Mary Ann Leos-Smith, of Su Casa Cafe on West Kingsbury Street, also said that it was a good thing what the city was trying to do. She says the pandemic and the ice storm earlier this year have created serious and in some cases lingering problems for many businesses.

“Ten thousand dollars in a business like mine is not very much but you know, every blessing is good. I’m not saying it is not a lot but I’m saying that there is more. Whatever it is will be good. We had money saved for the hard times. I did spend all of my savings trying to save the business, trying to keep on and even now, we are struggling with employees. You know the story. I just wanted to make sure that you understand that everything broke, even the grill. I don’t know how grills break but they did, mine broke and so it was the air condition, it was the plumbing, it was the ice machine. It was everything,” said Leos-Smith.

The grant program will be for reimbursements-only. It’s a point that Schneuker stressed when asked why the city didn’t try to fully fund each project upfront or at 100 percent.

“The intention is not for this funding to cover 100 percent of a project cost. We are all working together. The city is working withthe business to help offset some of those costs. The intention of this program is not for the city to cover 100 percent of a parking lot resurface or 100 percent of a storefront improvement. We want to encourage those types of activities by being a funding partner in that project. But at the end of the day, the money is not intended to cover 100 percent of those project costs. It has to, again, be kind of a two-way street where the city is kind of your business partner in the project but we need the business as well to be making that investment as well,” said Schneuker.

The city council unanimously approved the Seguin Business Improvement Grant Program. Staff will finalize the guidelines and the application process. Those items are expected to be presented to the council for final approval at its next meeting.