Three publicly traded lodge corporations tied to a Texas businessman mentioned that they’d not give again tens of millions of {dollars} in loans from a authorities program geared toward serving to small companies.
Dealing with stress from the federal government, a number of large corporations, together with the Potbelly and Shake Shack restaurant chains, have mentioned they are going to return loans they obtained beneath the Paycheck Safety Program.
The three lodge corporations, Ashford Inc., Ashford Hospitality Belief and Braemar Lodges & Resorts, that are tied to Texas lodge magnate Monty Bennett, have utilized for $126 million in loans and obtained $69 million, in keeping with a calculation from securities filings by The Related Press. They may use the cash to guard jobs, they mentioned in a press release. Since mid-March, the businesses and their lodge properties have furloughed or laid off 90% of their workforce.
“Media concerns over our receipt of PPP funds are misplaced. The PPP program was specifically designed to help companies like ours as part of the national objective of shoring up businesses and getting people back to work,” the assertion mentioned.
An Related Press investigation confirmed that dozens of publicly listed corporations collectively obtained lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} of loans from this system.
The PPP is meant to assist small companies with fewer than 500 staff. Its preliminary $349 billion in funds ran out final week and the Home gave closing approval to $310 billion in further funds Thursday.
The Small Enterprise Administration additionally issued an advisory Thursday clearly geared toward bigger corporations that took cash, with new tips implying that except an organization can show it was actually eligible for a loan, the cash ought to be returned by Could 7.
