For real estate
Tom Gale supports Realtors, buyers Page 11
February 5 - 18, 2021 Vol. 22, No. 3
wilmingtonbiz.com
$2.00
WEB EXCLUSIVE Startup news
The latest awards and more wilmingtonbiz.com
Hospital check
A closer look at NHRMC sale Page 6
What’s in store
The Northside Food Co-op plan advances Page 19
Index Banking & Finance .............................4-5 Health Care ........................................6-7 Economic Development.......................... 8 The List ............................................9, 14 In Profile...............................................11 Real Estate .................................... 12-13 Business of Life.............................. 18-19
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PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLINE SPENCER
On the job: The SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program has helped in The Queensboro Shirt Co.’s efforts to retain employees, like Teresa Thomas (at left). Also shown is Fred Meyers, president and founder of Queensboro.
SAFETY NET
PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM PROVIDES A LIFELINE FOR SOME
BY CHRISTINA HALEY O’NEAL
W
ithin three days of applying in January, Wilmingtonbased company Queensboro received its second round of coronavirus relief funds from the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program. The announcement by the federal government late last year to reopen the U.S. Small Business Administration’s PPP loans couldn’t have come at a better time for The Queensboro Shirt Co., a custom embroidery and printed apparel business, and its online business Queensboro.com. The move allowed Fred Meyers, founder and president of the company, to solidify
plans to keep the 80-employee workforce on board for 2021, he said. “If this loan did not come through, we would be thinking a lot differently about what to do now,” Meyers said, adding that it kept the company from having to reduce its workforce by as much as 50%. “I’ve been in business for 40 years now. And it was the first time I felt like ‘Wow, the government really helped me here,’” Meyers said. Queensboro’s loan was part of the more than 5,300 loans made in North Carolina in the PPP’s second round, according to SBA’s PPP loan data as of Jan. 24. That same data showed nearly 400,600 PPP loans were approved this year across the nation, worth more than $35 billion, since the second round opened Jan. 11. In total, the PPP has supported businesses nationally through 5.5 million loans, See PPP, page 10
