In 6 charts: Where PPP money went in NoCo and Boulder Valley

On Monday morning, the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Small Business Administration released the most granular information yet on the flow of money out of the $659 billion pot of money approved for the Paycheck Protection Program, meant to help struggling small businesses retain workers amid the severe economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

BizWest analyzed the data available Monday to gauge PPP activity in Berthoud, Boulder, Broomfield, Erie, Estes Park, Evans, Firestone, Fort Collins, Fort Lupton, Frederick, Greeley, Johnstown, Lafayette, Longmont, Louisville, Loveland, Niwot, Milliken, Timnath, Westminster, Windsor and Wellington.

There’s still a lot we don’t know. For example, borrowers that received less than $150,000 have their exact loan amount released, but their names and addresses other than their cities are withheld from public view. Vice versa for borrowers that took out more than $150,000: We know who they are, but the amount they were given is provided as a range instead of a concrete figure.

Here are our top-line takeaways from the first major data release and what it means for Northern Colorado and the Boulder Valley:

Applicants in Northern Colorado and Boulder Valley cities account for 16.7% of all PPP recipients in the state.

Small loans make up the lion’s share of Northern Colorado and the Boulder area’s loans.

No major surprise here, as smaller businesses that didn’t have as much immediate access to private-sector credit were the main target of the program. A total of 18,228 loans in the area were under $150,000, while 2,757 were above that figure.

Boulder and Fort Collins businesses made up just less than 40% of recipients asking for less than $150,000.

… And the trend is similar for the location of businesses asking for more than $150,000.

Borrowers asking for less than $150,000 in Boulder and Fort Collins got more than $100 million in both cities.

Boulder businesses got $126.42 million, while Fort Collins firms got $102.83 million. Longmont, Loveland and Greeley followed with $62.1 million, $52.27 million and $42.85 million, respectively.

… But the average PPP loan size is fairly standard across cities.

Fort Lupton businesses had the largest average loan size at $38,875, while Erie and Milliken’s average sizes were under $30,000. Other than that, businesses in every Northern Colorado city and the Boulder area got an average loan package in the low to mid-$30,000 range.

At least 170,000 local residents retained their jobs during the pandemic with the funding.

Companies that got funding reported that 172,786 jobs were directly retained by using federal dollars. However, this number comes with two caveats. First, the exact definition of a retained worker may differ from employer to employer, and it doesn’t differentiate workers who had no change in their day-to-day work lives against those who kept their jobs, but may have had to take a cut in hours or wages. Secondly, several companies were missing this data.
For comparison, more than 500,000 Coloradans have filed for initial unemployment benefits as of the start of June, and about 236,400 of those residents are on continuing benefits as of the week of June 27.

Data analysis and charts by Dan Mika. Source for all data: U.S. Small Business Administration

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