Loans readily available for company impacted by Lowell Point landslide

When a landslide blocked all road access to the neighborhood of Lowell Point, just south of Seward, final spring, it hit corporations challenging. Now, the deadline is approaching for these corporations to apply for a loan from the Tiny Small business Administration to support offset the financial impacts of the landslide.

The loans, referred to as Financial Injury Disaster loans, can be up to $two million, and can go to any little non-farm corporations or nonprofits. There’s a loan interest price of about two.935% for company and 1.875% for nonprofits.

1 company that is applying for the loan is Miller’s Landing in Lowell Point — a campground, fishing charter company and occasion space.

In the spring of 2022, co-owner Opportunity Miller was gearing up for a large summer time.

“We had a extremely productive year in 2021, and so going into 2022, we wanted to be prepared for it. We hired a diverse management group, we restructured, we created large investments,” he stated. “And then we had the landslide take place.”

Miller stated the firm lost involving $500 and $600 thousand as a outcome of the landslide.

Even soon after the road partially reopened just just before Memorial Day and completely reopened mid-June, quite a few guests have been just as well anxious to make the trip out. He stated signage and the visible harm to the hillside didn’t support.

“People are nervous,” he stated. “The story’s nonetheless fresh in people’s minds.”

Miller’s Landing began providing a no cost water taxi service to get individuals to and from Lowell Point when the road was closed. And when it kept their 40 workers busy, it didn’t bring in any dollars.

Sooner or later, Miller stated, the state paid the firm about $one hundred thousand for the service. Nonetheless, it was a challenging summer time. He described this previous fall as the tightest season in a lot more than 40 years of company.

“It does not look like considerably, but when you have a 90 day season, one hundred day season, and you drop 30 days of it, that is a large deal,” he stated. “And it straight relates to our bottom line.”

Miller stated that when he is applying for the SBA loan, he hopes he’ll in no way truly have to invest the dollars. But he desires to be a lot more protected than sorry if anything devastating takes place once more.

The application is due April 12.

According to the SBA, federal disaster loans are readily available in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Kodiak Island Borough, Lake and Peninsula Borough, Matanuska-Susitna Borough and the Municipality of Anchorage. You can take a look at https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov/ to apply.