The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced the opening of two additional Business Recovery Centers (BRCs) in Palm Beach County and Hillsborough County on Sept. 19 and 20, to help businesses impacted by Hurricane Irma.
Center Locations:
The new centers will be located in southeast Florida, in Palm Beach County, and in west Florida, in Hillsborough County, whereby expanding their availability to areas of highest population density. In keeping the previous locations, these new locations will have SBA representatives on hand to provide information about disaster loans, answer questions and assist businesses in completing their SBA applications. The new locations are as follows:
- Hillsborough County
Hillsborough Community College at The Regent
6437 Watson Road
Riverview, FL 33578
- Palm Beach County
Carol Sims Center
225 NW 12th Avenue
Boynton Beach, FL 33435
“As new locations open and further damage assessments are made, we will continue to provide updates to the public to ensure all impacted regions are able to get the recovery assistance needed,” said South Florida District Director Francisco “Pancho” Marrero.
The three other locations which opened earlier this week will remain fully operational:
- Duval County
Beaver Street Enterprise Center
728 Blanche Street, Bldg. 2
Jacksonville, FL 32204
- Pinellas County
The EpiCenter-Pinellas County Economic Development Center
13805 58th Street North
Clearwater, FL 33760
Hours: 9 a.m. – 6 p.m., Monday – Saturday
- Johns County
FEMA/SBA Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) – Wind Mitigation Building
3111 Agricultural Center Drive
St. Augustine, FL 32092
*All centers are open Monday – Saturday, 9:00am – 6:00pm, and are closed on Sundays, until further notice.
Committed to Economic Recovery
“The SBA is committed to facilitating economic recovery in this disaster. We want area businesses to have a resource where they can meet individually with SBA representatives and find out how a low-interest disaster loan can help them recover,” said Frank Skaggs, director of SBA’s Field Operations Center East in Atlanta.
Primary Counties
The Primary Counties to receive assistance are as follows:
| Alachua
Baker Bradford Brevard Broward Charlotte Citrus Clay Collier Colombia |
DeSoto
Duval Flagler Gilchrist Glades Hardee Hendry Hernando Highlands Hillsborough |
Indian River
Lake Lee Levy Manatee Marion Martin Miami-Dade Monroe Nassau |
Okeechobee
Orange Osceola Palm Beach Pasco Pinellas Polk Putnam Saint Johns Saint Lucie |
Sarasota
Seminole Sumter Suwanee Union Volusia
|
*Economic Injury Only
Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette and Madison county businesses may seek assistance on the grounds on economic injury only.
Deadline
The SBA offers low-interest, long-term disaster loans for physical damage and working capital. To be considered for this assistance, survivors need to apply by the deadline. The filing deadline to return applications for physical property damage is Nov. 9, 2017. The deadline to return economic injury applications is June 11, 2018.
Additional information
Additional information on the disaster loan program may be obtained as follows:
SBA Customer Service Center: 800-659-2955
For the deaf and hard-of-hearing: 800-877-8339
Email: disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.
Applicants may apply online using the Electronic Loan Application (ELA) via SBA’s secure website at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela. Loan applications can be downloaded from www.sba.gov. Completed applications should be returned to a recovery center (above) or mailed to:
U.S. Small Business Administration
Processing and Disbursement Center
14925 Kingsport Road
Fort Worth, TX 76155
For more information about the SBA’s Disaster Loan Program, visit our website at www.sba.gov/disaster
