Arizona small business rehires 250, thanks to Paycheck Protection Program

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Funds from the next round of the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) may start being deposited in just a few days in Arizona.

PPP was designed as a way to help small businesses keep employees on the payroll instead of the unemployment line.

Thanks to that federal funding, a Scottsdale business was able to hire back nearly 250 people.

Chris Collins' ice cream shop, part of restaurant group Common Ground Culinary, is reopening April 27.

"It was a real big challenge taking seven concepts and on a dime turning them over," said Collins. "Not knowing what's going on in a week, in two weeks, a month, 6 months and a year."

Collins owns Common Ground Culinary, which consists of seven restaurants in Scottsdale.

When COVID-19 became widespread, he adjusted like so many others to a takeout model.

It meant he couldn't pay his staff.

"Laying off 240 plus employees - it literally brought tears to my eyes that day," said Collins.

He was one of 19,000 Arizona small businesses to receive funding from the first round of the Payroll Protection Program.

It’s a forgivable loan meant to encourage businesses to rehire employees as the unemployment numbers skyrocket.

In Arizona alone, more than 418,000 people filed for unemployment in the last 5 weeks - now take 240 people off that list.

Collins says he used the 1.8 million in funding he received to hire back all 240 employees starting Monday.

"We’re bringing all of our employees back April 27th," Collins explained. "We’re doing cleaning and organizing, getting ready for what comes in the future, but also promoting a wonderful curbside employment program that’s a benefit to the neighborhood."

Congress has approved another 310 billion for PPP, and the greater Phoenix economic council hopes more small businesses will be able to hire back employees next week.

However, the state has not received as much federal money from disaster loans. Only 460 small businesses received money from that multi-billion dollar federal program.

MORE: Small businesses suffer after banks pay out PPP loans to big businesses

In a statement, the Greater Phoenix Economic Council said:

“We are working diligently to pinpoint the ‘why’ behind our low numbers, but the demand and number of applicants isn’t on par with the SBA approval figures. We are growing concerned about what we’re hearing from the underbanked and unbanked small business community.”

GPEC said the SBA will start accepting new PPP applications Monday, but people will need to file quickly. They expect funds will run out by the end of the week.