Medford Companies Received $87M In Federal Coronavirus Loans

MEDFORD, MA — Companies in Medford received $87 million in loan approvals under the federal Paycheck Protection Program, according to data released Tuesday by the Small Business Administration.

The loans went to 757 companies and ranged from $871 to $6.1 million. Applicants said the loans would help them protect 5,799 jobs in Medford.

For Xtreme Ninja Martial Arts, which received $42,695, the loan meant the business could pay its rent and retain its staff.

"The rent has not been adjusted or deferred by our landlord, so it was important to keep this paid so we could stay in the space," Anna Nguyen, who oversees operations at the center, said. "There were moments of doubt where we had to consider the possibility of finding a new space or consolidating our current space."

The PPP loan helped bridge the time between closing onsite services and reopening. Eventually, the business sought other funding sources to stay afloat, including local grants and taking out an SBA loan.

"We feel very lucky and blessed to have made it through so far," Nguyen said. "We have had an incredibly supportive member community and their loyalty and dedication has been the driving force of our success!"

The data released this week includes all loans under the program passed in March as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and forced widespread business closures and layoffs. SBA released some loan data in July, but that data only showed loans over $150,000 and did not include specific dollar amounts.

The Washington Post, Bloomberg and other media companies sued the SBA to release the full data set. In November, a federal judge ruled in favor of the media companies and ordered the SBA to release the data by Dec. 1. The data released Tuesday was current as of Nov. 24 and includes updates to the data released in July.

PPP loans are part of the CARES Act, a comprehensive COVID-19 relief package Congress passed in the spring. The loans are forgivable as long as a certain percentage is used for payroll. The program stopped taking new applications in August, but business groups are pressuring federal lawmakers and the Trump administration to renew the program.

In Medford, the top loans went to:

• General Insulation Company, 278 Mystic Ave: $6,142,400.00
• Homeworks Energy, 101 Station Landing: $4,969,000.00
• Management Sciences for Health, 200 Rivers Edge Dr: $4,916,000.00
• Cambridge Systematics Inc., 101 Station Landing: $3,300,000.00
• Fire Equipment Inc., 20 Hall Street: $2,369,000.00
• 1 Washington Avenue Corp., 101 Station Landing: $1,690,700.00
• Six Red Marbles Inc., 101 Station Landing: $1,635,745.00
• Walnut Street Center, 291 Mystic Ave: $1,526,525.00
• S&W Chicago LLC, 101 Station Landing: $1,417,200.00
• MRNC Operating LLC, 300 Winthrop Street: $1,314,597.00
• Evolved by Nature Inc., 196 Boston Ave: $1,249,500.00
• J.A.J Tile Company Inc., 21 Prescott Street: $1,112,100.00
• Elizabeth Grady Face First Inc., 222 Boston Ave: $1,045,890.00
• Millennium Maintenance & Power Sweeping Inc., 393 Mystic Ave: $1,020,530.00

Statewide, there were nearly 118,000 loans totaling $14.27 billion. In their loan applications, the companies that received the loans said they would help protect 1.17 million jobs in Massachusetts.