Nearly 40,000 Northern Virginia businesses received PPP loans

Nearly 7,000 Northern Virginia companies and nonprofits have received Payroll Protection Plan loans of at least $150,000 apiece from the Small Business Administration, and another 32,700 have received loans of less than $150,000, according to an InsideNoVa analysis of data released this week. 

The PPP, as the program is known, was approved by Congress in early April as part of the CARES act to help businesses with fewer than 500 employees whose revenue declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Loans are available for up to 2 1/2 times the average monthly payroll of the business or nonprofit and designed to be used to keep employees on the payroll.  The guidelines were changed last month, reducing the percentage that had to be used on payroll expense in order for the loans to be written off and giving companies up to 24 weeks to spend the money.  

If the required percentage of the loans is not used for payroll expenses, then the loans must be repaid in part or in full, according to the program guidelines. 

The SBA has approved over $521 billion of PPP loans and has another $131 billion available. The application deadline was recently extended until Aug. 8. 

Following Freedom of Information Act requests from a number of media organizations, the SBA released specific data on loans over $150,000, including the names and addresses of businesses that received those loans.  The specific amount of each loan was not included, but a range was provided.  

The SBA said 86.5% of PPP loans were for less than $150,000, but they accounted for only 27.2% of the total amount of loans approved. The average loan size was $107,000. More than 3.5 million loans were for $50,000 or less, while about 82,600 loans were for more than $1 million. About 4.1 million loans have been approved to date. 

In Northern Virginia, the InsideNoVa analysis of the SBA data found 6,905 companies or nonprofits that received loans over $150,000.  According to data provided by those organizations, they employed a total of 290,000 individuals, or an average of 42 employees per organization.

Of those, about 1 percent, or 67 companies and organizations, received loans of between $5 million and $10 million, the maximum allowable.  The list of companies receiving the largest loans includes travel-related companies such as the Airline Tariff Publishing Co. of Sterling, restaurant groups such as Five Guys Enterprises Inc. of Lorton and Matchbox Food Group of Reston, and medical practices such as The Cardiovascular Group PC of Falls Church and Fairfax Radiological Consultants PC.

Three nonprofits received between $5 million and $10 million: Community Residences Inc. of Chantilly, National Wildlife Federation of Reston, and SourceAmerica of Vienna.

Another 327 companies and nonprofits received between $2 million and $5 million, and 667 received loans of between $1 million and $2 million.  The SBA said the average loan size nationwide was $107,000. 

The 32,726 Northern Virginia companies and nonprofits that received loans of less than $150,000 reported employing about 128,000 workers, or just over four employees per company. The average loan for these companies was $35,748.  An average for the larger loans could not be calculated because only ranges were provided. 

For purposes of this analysis and the detailed list below, Northern Virginia includes the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford and all the towns therein, as well as the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park. 

NOTE: Rappahannock Media LLC, the parent company of InsideNoVa, received a PPP loan of between $150,000 and $350,000.  However, it is not included among Northern Virginia companies because it is headquartered in Washington, Va., in Rappahannock County.