Pub. 5 Issue 3

12 Issue 1 2020 Here’s How One L .A. Business Owner is Navigating Government Help for the Coronavirus BY MICHAEL HILTZIK | BUSINESS COLUMNIST PUBLISHED IN THE LOS ANGELES TIMES APRIL 3, 2020 O nTuesday,DarrylHolt- er was feeling frantic. The co-owner of two ver y different small businesses — the Larchmont neighborhood’s Chevalier’s Books and Felix Chevrolet in downtown Los Angeles — Holter was trying to com- plete applications for government small business loans for both so they could be sent to his bank before Friday. “I’mafraid that on Friday, the fund will empty out,” he told me. “I think everyone’s lining up for this.” Holter has reason for concern. The coronavirus fiscal rescue passed by Con- gress and signed by President Trump March 27 set aside up to $350 billion for low-interest government-guaranteed loans for small businesses to help them survive the economic shutdown brought on by the virus and to prompt them to maintain their workforce or rehire those they’ve laid off because of the crisis. The loans are to be doled out through commercial banks that were to begin pro- cessing applications Friday. There are some indications from the Small Business Administration that the loans will be made available on a first- come-first-served basis. Since there are more than 30 million small businesses in I’d like people to actually learn something from this. It’s unfair for employees and employers. — DARRYL HOLTER, CHEVALIER’S BOOKS AND FELIX CHEVROLET the United States, a large proportion of which may qualify for the loans of up to $10 million each, the chances that demand will outstrip supply are significant. Even if the average loan turns out to be $100,000, the fundwill cover barely 10%of America’s small businesses. With one smaller small business (the community bookstore) andone larger small business (the Chevy dealership), Holter has been grappling with a wide range of imponderables. Holter, who has taught history at USC and UCLA, written about Woody Guth- rie, and spearheaded the revitalization of the Figueroa Street corridor in downtown L.A., acquired the businesses by different routes. Felix Chevrolet, founded in 1921, was acquired by his wife’s family in 1957 and is under his andhiswife’smanagement. Chevalier’s, founded in1940, is the city’s oldest bookstore, was more of a “labor of LA BUSINESS NAVIGATING GOVERNMENT HELP love,” Holter says. He and Bert H. Deixler, a veteranLosAngeles commercial litigator, bought the shop in 2014 “to keep it going.” They stabilized its declining finances, refurbished the premises, and launched au- thor events and children’s readings. “We took it from a store that was really struggling and turned it around,” Holter says. “We turned it into part of the intel- lectual infrastructure of the city to compete with Amazon and survive.” Although Chevalier’s can’t continue the community events, for the moment, the store is offering free shop-to-front- door deliveries within a couple of miles of its Larchmont Boulevard location, and mail deliveries outside that zone. This has allowed Chevalier’s to keep four of its eight full- and part-time staff employed and to ready it for reopening after the coronavirus shutdown passes, Holter says.  LA BUSINESS — continued on page 13