Relief plan for Marin’s struggling businesses

Marin businesses struggling to survive the coronavirus pandemic could see relief from future grants and federal aid.

The Marin Economic Recovery Task Force is working on shortterm and long-term relief and has applied for grant funding to support an “economic vitality strategic plan,” Supervisor Damon Connolly told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

Connolly said leaders are working with the Marin County Community Development Agency to allocate nearly $448,000 in federal funding to aid small businesses. The Marin Economic Recovery Task Force is made up of representatives from county government, local chambers of commerce, businesses and community organizations such as Canal Alliance.

“The purpose of the group is to plot the economic recovery for the county,” said committee member Mike Blakeley, chief executive of the Marin Economic Forum.

Blakeley said the committee concluded early on in the pandemic that a long-term strategy would be needed, particularly since the crisis was likely to bring fundamental change to the economic landscape.

“There is definitely going to be a shift to more online consumption,” Blakeley said. “There is definitely a shift to remote working. These new dynamics create an opportunity for Marin to think about its economy and what its residents need.”

Joanne Webster, CEO of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce, wrote in an email that the county needs a strategy that promotes the creation of middle- and upper-level wage jobs.

“That will help us diversify our economy,” Webster wrote. “Too many sectors that our economy relies on in Marin have been hard hit and they may not come back.”

The forum, which was created in 2010 to foster economic growth in the county while also protecting the environment and promoting equity, has taken the lead in applying for $170,000 in federal relief funds to develop the plan.

The application was submitted at the end of September, but the county won’t know for several months if it will receive any money. The funding would come through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act.

Blakeley said that while Marin County has commissioned several economic studies in the past, including some prepared by his organization, it lacks a standing economic strategy like most other Bay Area counties have.

“Right now we don’t have a roadmap for where we want our economy to go,” he said. “So it isn’t a matter of simply updating an existing strategy to accommodate this new dynamic, but really starting from scratch.”

Blakeley said because Marin’s economy relies so heavily on the hospitality and personal services sectors, it has been affected more than others by the coronavirus lockdowns.

But the news isn’t bleak.

“A lot of our residents were able to retain their jobs and make the shift to work from home, because they work for companies that serve markets much larger than just the Marin County market,” Blakeley said.

Blakeley said that the commercial real estate sector in Marin has also fared better than most people realize.

“There is this narrative that the commercial real estate sector is going to be forever changed, that there is going to be empty office buildings and we need to reimagine those spaces,” he said. “So far, that is not the case in Marin County.”

Blakeley said asking rents have increased over a year ago, and the amount of available local commercial

all space is down compared with a year ago.

“We are seeing evidence of San Francisco- based companies relocating to smaller footprints in Marin County,” he said.

Another initiative noted involves funding from the CARES Act. It is part of $1.79 million in community development block grant money from the CARES Act that the county announced receiving in December. About 25% of the funds, $ 447,749, has been allocated for “microenterprise” and small business grants and zero-interest loans. The remainder is going towards rental assistance.

The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines a small business as a business with more than six employees and fewer than 50. It defines a microenterprise as a business with five or fewer employees, including the owner.

On Tuesday, county supervisors will consider contracting with the San Francisco-based Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) to have it allocate the small business financial assistance.

MEDA will combine the $ 447,749 in grant money with another $450,000 it has received from banks and other financial institutions to create a Marin County Small Business Fund worth about $900,000.

“We’re a community development financial institution,” said Nathanial Owen, a MEDA director. “We raise loan capital from banks and foundations and other sources regularly. Under the Community Reinvestment Act, banks have to meet certain community reinvestment requirements.”

Fifty-three percent of the assistance will go to businesses in San Rafael and 27% will go to businesses in Novato. The amount of funding jurisdictions are receiving is based on the number of coronavirus cases they have and the size of the economic and housing market disruptions they’ve suffered from the pandemic.