Rochester awards emergency loans to 13 small businesses
The City of Rochester has issued $249,508 in emergency economic development loans to the following 13 area small businesses:
ExercisAbilities: $22,500
Hair Studio 52: $22,500
Junge Flooring: $22,500
Paxton Electric: $22,500
Posh Facial Esthetics, LLC: $22,500
Rochester Trolley: $22,500
Rochester Golf Carts, LLC: $22,050
Threshold Arts: $19,990
Chocolate Stam: $18,000
Express Car Wash: $18,000
Fagan Studios: $17,078
Eastman Auto Repair: $14,400
Great Harvest: $5,000
The loan program was part of a series of economic measures taken by the city council in mid-March in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A total of 38 applications were submitted to the Rochester Area Economic Development, Inc. (RAEDI), which was responsible for administering the program. Criteria for consideration included the impact caused by Covid-19, prior financial stability, years in business, and percentage of staff retained. According to city officials, the 13 loans loans selected by a review team resulted in the retention of 123 full- and part-time employees.
Under the terms, business will be required to begin making payments 90 days after the state of emergency declaration is terminated (stay tuned tonight for that). There will be a 1 percent interest rate on each loan; though if the loan is paid off within six months, no interest will be charged.
Additionally, the city announced this week that 54 small businesses had been awarded a combined $100,000 in grants as part of the Keep it Local, Covid-19 Innovators Grant Program. The initiative — funded by the city and Destination Medical Center — required business owners to team up with local service providers on projects helping the businesses adapt their models in response to challenges posed by the pandemic.
Construction to begin on crisis center
The construction company chosen to build the new Southeast Regional Crisis Center says it expects to break ground on the project on June 1.
Once up and running, the center will offer 24/7 access to crisis assessment, intervention, and stabilization, along with peer-support, real-time care coordination, and other behavioral health and psychiatric services.
“Mental illness is pervasive in our society and in one way or another touches us all,” said State Sen. Dave Senjem, who, according to a county news release, played a critical role to securing funding for the project. “The Southeast Regional Crisis Center will be a place for individuals to go and receive help during times of personal emotional distress.”
The facility, to be located on Olmsted County’s Health, Housing and Human Services campus in southeast Rochester, will serve the 10-county region.
While a $5 million state grant will cover much of the construction costs, it will not fund operations of the facility. That responsibility will be left up to a consortium of community partners, including Olmsted County, Mayo Clinic, Olmsted Medical Center and NAMI Southeast Minnesota.
The project is expected to be complete by spring 2021. Due to the pandemic, a formal groundbreaking has been postponed until later in the year.
Mayo collaborates on new antibody test
Thermo Fisher Scientific announced plans Wednesday to collaborate with WuXi Diagnostics and Mayo Clinic on a new antibody test.
The Massachusetts-based company says the OmniPath COVID-19 Total Antibody ELISA test is the result of an ongoing collaboration between all three institutions, including clinical evaluation and support from Mayo.
Once approved for use, Thermo Fisher says the test will detect Immunoglobulin M (IgM) and Immunoglobulin G (IgG) to help clinicians determine if a patient has been exposed to SARS-CoV-2.
The company is now seeking FDA Emergency Use Authorization and international regulatory authorizations for the assay, which will be manufactured at its site in the U.S. and Europe.
"Rapidly expanding access to high-quality testing requires bold collaborations across the laboratory industry,” Mayo CEO Dr. Gianrico Farrugia said in a news release. “This marks a significant milestone in our national testing response to COVID-19 and was made possible by bringing together the commercialization capabilities of Thermo Fisher Scientific, testing development abilities of WuXi Diagnostics, and clinical and laboratory expertise of Mayo Clinic physicians and scientists."
In addition to Mayo, WuXi Diagnostics also has local ties. The company is a joint venture formed in 2018 between Mayo Clinic and the Chinese firm WuXi AppTec Group. It has an office in One Discovery Square.
Just yesterday, another local firm, Vyriad, announced it also developed a new serology test in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Regeneron. Theirs differs from Thermo Fisher’s in that it is capable of detecting neutralizing antibodies to determine a person’s immune defense against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
Sean Baker is a Rochester journalist and the founder of Med City Beat.
