SBA administrator visits Northwest Arkansas business owners affected by tornadoes

U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman spoke with Northwest Arkansas business owners affected by tornadoes during a roundtable discussion on July 18, 2024 at the Rogers-Lowell Chamber of Commerce. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)

When Daniel Sanchez’s family discovered the damage a tornado caused their small business in May, he said it was the first time he’d ever seen his father cry.

“That really hurt, all the hard work he’s put in,” Sanchez said.

Tortilleria La Popular — a tortilla factory, bakery and restaurant — has been a fixture in Rogers for 16 years. But severe weather over Memorial Day weekend halted operations after the family was left with inventory loss and broken equipment due to rain leaking through a damaged roof.

Sanchez said it was his parents’ “American dream to open a small business” and they put a lot of hard work into it.

“It was very devastating for them, watching them go through it, but we’re a faithful family, and we believe that things happen for a reason and we know that God has a plan for us,” he said.

The Sanchezes were part of a group of about a dozen Northwest Arkansas business owners who participated in a roundtable discussion Thursday at the Rogers-Lowell Chamber of Commerce with U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, who spent the day in the region at the request of U.S. Rep. Steve Womack.

“SBA needs to be there for the long-term, and we will be,” Guzman said.

The United States hit a record of more than 28 $1-billion natural disasters last year, breaking the previous record of 22 set about two years prior, Guzman said. In the 1980s there’d be a disaster of that scale about every four months, now it’s every few weeks, she said.

As a result of President Joe Biden’s executive order to transform federal customer experience, Guzman said SBA has worked to streamline its services, in part by investing heavily in technology. Previously, it could take 100 days to process loan applications. Now that’s down to 12 days and sometimes 24 to 48 hours if it’s a simple application and a smaller amount, she said.

Following Biden’s approval of a major disaster declaration on May 31, the SBA began offering low-interest federal disaster loans to Arkansans affected by more than a dozen tornadoes and several storms. Businesses and nonprofits can borrow up to $2 million to aid in the repair or replacement of damaged real estate, equipment, inventory and other business assets.

SBA also offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans to help meet working capital needs caused by the disaster. Up to $500,000 in disaster loans are available to homeowners to help repair or replace damaged or destroyed real estate. Homeowners and renters can borrow up to $100,000 for personal property, including vehicles.

To date, SBA has received 534 applications and approved 156 worth nearly $13 million, agency officials said Thursday. SBA is seeing an approval rate of more than 60%, which Guzman described as “a good performance.”

While business owners at Thursday’s discussion said the SBA’s assistance is welcome, they also noted they’re facing a number of challenges in starting over.

Ozark Axe House owner Patrick Stewart lost everything when the building housing his downtown Rogers business was completely wiped out by May’s tornadoes. The rising cost of materials and rent will make it difficult to find something comparable, he said.

“I think that’s the hardest part is comparatively to three, four, five years ago whenever somebody opened their business, you’ll never be able to touch what you did it for then,” he said.

Womack, who served as the mayor of Rogers for 12 years before being elected to Congress, said that while it wasn’t cheap to begin with, the “economic vitality” that’s led to widespread growth in Northwest Arkansas has resulted in increased costs.

“It just puts an additional burden on these small businesses, and as these renters have said, there’s just not a place available for a lot of businesses to be able to relocate to,” Womack said.

As Arkansans continue to work on recovery efforts, Guzman said she’s proud SBA programs have transformed to increase limits as well as ensure a 12-month period when no interest accrues and the loan is deferred “so that businesses and individuals can recover.”

Additionally, she said the deadline for physical disaster assistance has been extended to Aug. 28 and the deadline for economic injury loans is not until next March.

“Our small businesses have been so resilient over the last few years having overcome and dealt with COVID and that disruption and now dealing with natural disasters,” she said. “We’ve seen an uptick across the country over the last few years and we want those small businesses to use our free advisory networks, use all of the SBA products to be able to figure out that pathway forward.”

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