CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It wasn’t the news restaurateur Paul Manley wanted to share with his employees.
His application for help from the $349 billion, U.S. Small Business Administration-backed Paycheck Protection Program remained in the queue — unfunded — and the program had run out of money.
“It felt like a sure thing,” he says. “This process did not go our way.”
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Manley anticipated receiving roughly $700,000 for his restaurant concepts — Sea Level in uptown Charlotte, The Waterman in South End and Ace No. 3 in the Belmont neighborhood.
Missing out on PPP funds means he can’t put his 109 employees, laid off in March, back on the payroll. Gone were promised funds to help with costs from rent to utilities and to reopen his restaurants.
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“It’s a little overwhelming. I know other people who have gotten funded,” he says. “It’s tough for the people who rely on us.”
Manley talked with the Charlotte Business Journal about his frustration during the PPP process, starting out with Wells Fargo and turning to local community bank Aquesta, as well as his thoughts about the future of his business.
Read the full story here.
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