Fort Worth extends deadline for minority-owned business COVID-19 grants

FORT WORTH, Texas - The city of Fort Worth is extending the application deadline for grants to help minority owned businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The available money, $2.5 million, is part of the city’s CARES Act funding. Businesses with as few as five employees or as many as 250 workers who can provide documented proof of losses as a result of COVID-19 qualify.

The original deadline was this week, but after considering the nationwide climate addressing systemic racial inequities -- the city felt more time to apply was warranted.

“Our minority-owned businesses have been hit extremely hard from this pandemic and now dealing with everything else that's going on in the country. So we just wanted to ensure were doing everything that we can do on our end to ensure they've had an opportunity to look at this opportunity, get the documentation together and then go ahead and get their application in,” said Robert Sturns, Fort Worth Economic Development Director.

The grant program is called Preserve the Fort and the new deadline to apply is June 15.

Previous federal or local assistance does not disqualify a business from applying. The grants range from $5,000 to $50,000.