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TREASURE COAST REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCIL REVOLVING LOAN FUND SERVICE AREA AND FUNDING EXPANSION JUNE 9, 2020 REVISED Purpose and Background The retention and growth of small- and medium- size businesses can be constrained by a lack of access to capital. This situation has been exacerbated by the economic damage caused by the Coronavirus Pandemic and the activity restrictions and business closures necessary to restrain the spread of the virus. Revolving Loan Funds provide a means to put capital in the hands of small businesses that might not otherwise be able to obtain loans. As loans are repaid, the funds are loaned out again to new borrowers allowing the program to continue and expand its reach into the community. The South Florida Regional Planning Council (SFRPC) currently operates a Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) through the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA), that provides low interest loans ranging from $25,000 to $500,000 to small- and medium- size businesses. Since 2002, the SFRPC RLF program has serviced more than 410 loans, totaling more than $37 million, and helping fund projects totaling over $112 million. As a result of these investments, more than 8,000 jobs have been created or saved. These projects were funded with RLF money because conventional funding was not available. The original lending area was Monroe, Miami -Dade, and Broward counties in the SFRPC region but was expanded in 2019 to include Palm Beach County in the Treasure Coast region. The expansion was approved by Council on December 14, 2018 through Resolution 2018-04. At the time, there was no new capital available to invest into the RLF so the service area expansion was limited to just part of the Treasure Coast region due to the limited loan funds on hand. As part of the CARES Act of 2020, the EDA will be providing new funding to existing RLFs in good standing, doubling their existing funds without the requirement for matching funds. For the SFRPC RLF, this means that $5.38 million is being provided for them to make new loans in their existing service area of Monroe, Miami -Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, with an additional 10% to administer the funds. The EDA is also making grant funds available on a competitive basis to, among other things, establish or expand Revolving Loan Funds to help address the impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic. Proposed Proiect Council does not currently operate an EDA RLF and it. will be faster and more efficient to bring these services to the rest of the Treasure Coast region (Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River counties) by expanding the existing RLF operated by the SFRPC, especially considering that Palm Beach County is already within the SFRPC RLF service area. Council, therefore, would like to request funding from EDA to supplement the additional capitalization provided to the SFRPC RLF by the EDA and to expand the lending service area to include the entire TCRPC region. Considering that the existing 4 county lending area was provided with $5.38 million in additional loan funds, and considering that the basis of that award was the amount of the existing loan pool developed when the lending area was only 3 counties (Monroe, Miami -Dade, and Broward), the population related to that $5.38 million is approximately 4,797,115 people. This equates to $1.12 per capita. Considering that the population of the 4 county Treasure Coast 6