Members of the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency toured The Original Crunch Roll Factory in Westfield in 2018.

An additional 30 businesses have been approved to be recipients of a $10.5 million grant through the CARES Act, which enabled the agency to establish a new Revolving Loan Fund at the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency. The intent of the fund is to provide capital, in the form of low-interest loans, to both businesses and non-profit organizations as a means to respond to economic injury resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those most recently approved for funding include: Merritt Estate Winery; The Original Crunch Roll; Pucci Carpet; Excelco/Newbrook; Artone; International Ordnance; Kimbert Manufacturing; Heritage Ministries; Uhl Ventures (Servpro); Ark Wholesale; SKB Auto Sales; Brigiottas; Billicki Law Firm; Advanced Production Group; Skate Shop; Corvus Bus & Charter; Webb’s Candies/Motel; Falconer Hotel; La Quinta/Holiday Inn/Hampton Inn; Big Inlet Brewing; Ivory Acres Weddings; Shawbucks; Cockaigne; Pace’s Pizzeria; Webb’s Harbor Restaurant and Bowling Lanes; Blackstone Advanced Technologies; the Resource Center; Meeder’s Restaurant; Lisciandro’s Restaurant; Bailey Manufacturing, and many others.

With the intent of distributing the funding across many sectors and do it an equitable manner, the CCIDA established target budgets by sector and deployed the funding in three rounds. The first round of funding was awarded at the Oct. 27 CCIDA Board meeting, the second round was awarded at the Jan. 26 meeting, and the latest and final round was awarded at the April 27 meeting. While the original allocation of over $10 Million has been fully committed, the loan fund will continue to be replenished as loan payments are made, thereby allowing the CCIDA to continue to loan this funding out into perpetuity.

In total, the IDA board approved funding for 50 businesses and non-profit entities in the following sectors: manufacturing/warehousing; not-for-profits; retail/commercial/agriculture; small business; and tourism/hospitality. All said, $10.4 Million in funding was approved by the CCIDA Board of Directors after a thorough review by the Loan Committee, which will, in addition to retaining more than 2000 jobs, create upwards of 130 new jobs.

Mark Geise, deputy county executive for Economic Development and the CCIDA’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are elated that we could deploy all of the funding allocated to us in September of 2020 in less than 9 months, and in the process help more than four dozen businesses and not-for-profits to not only endure, but create jobs. Our extraordinary team at the CCIDA has worked very diligently to get this money out working in the community as quickly as possible, while ensuring that we are responsible, impartial, and address the EDA’s guidelines.”