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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Loan Designers

Orange County’s cluster of architecture, design, and tenant-improvement focused construction firms are among the largest local beneficiaries of the Paycheck Protection Program, according to newly released federal documents.

More than $50 million in federal loans, and perhaps more than $100 million, were approved for notable local firms operating in the architecture, design and tenant-improvement fields, according to Business Journal analysis of data released by the Trump administration last Monday.

Several area companies in the sector were approved for loans in the highest bracket of data released last week by the administration—those in the $5 million to $10 million range.

Those approved for loans in that range included affiliates of KTGY Architecture + Planning (loan via Pacific Western Bank), LPA Inc. (Zions Bank) and Ware Malcomb (City National Bank), each in Irvine, and Orange’s Architects Orange (HomeStreet Bank), records show.

Numerous other area firms in the industry were approved for loans in the $2 million to $5 million range, documents show. They include affiliates of MVE & Partners (loan via City National), TCA Architects (City National), WATG (American Savings Bank) and William Hezmalhalch Architects (Bank of America), records indicate.

Construction Rebound

The sector’s use of PPP loans rivals that of OC-based restaurant, hospitality, aerospace and manufacturing companies, particularly for loans at the higher end of the PPP program, Business Journal research shows.

Pandemic-related issues facing those other sectors have been well-documented over the past three months, with job cuts and closures hitting numerous firms as restaurant dining, air travel, mall shopping and other activities ground to halt beginning in March.

Residential and commercial construction, a big source of business for the local design and architecture industry, took a dip at the onset of the pandemic, but the sector has reported improving results the past two months.

Chapman University economists said late last month in their midyear economic forecast that OC housing market “is already in recovery mode.”

Many area design, architecture and tenant-improvement firms have found a new line of business of late working with office and retail landlords to re-imagine offices and other space with social-distancing and other safety measures considered (see story, page 20).

Loan Forgiveness

The federal government issued more than $68 billion in loans to some 580,000 California businesses in the last three months as part of the Paycheck Protection Program, which kicked off in early April.

The largest disclosed loans, in the $5 million to $10 million range, went to about 650 businesses in the state.

Some companies in the state have disputed the records that were released last week. Other firms approved for loans on the list said they ended up not taking the money.

The PPP provides businesses with 500 or fewer employees loans that can be forgiven if the employer meets certain criteria, including using the money to keep pre-pandemic employees on the payroll for at least eight weeks after receiving the loan. None of the industry firms cited as receiving the loans have disclosed significant job cuts with California’s state employment agencies over that time.

On July 4, President Donald Trump signed a new bill to extend the PPP for another five weeks.

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Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the Editor-in-Chief of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.
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