The Woodlands Area Businesses Received Over a Billion Dollars Through Payroll Protection Program

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- Many Woodlands Area businesses participated in the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) that was offered by the SBA during the initial quarantine. New data regarding the allotted loans was released June 6, through a Freedom of Information Act, filed by media companies.

Woodlands Online reviewed the data, and we estimate that in total, businesses within The Woodlands Area received over 1.2 billion dollars. A potential of over 150,000 local jobs were saved with these funds. The loan money covered payroll, office rent, and health insurance for employees, for two months. The loan itself has the potential to be forgiven. (Read more about the loan calculation)

The data was released in two groups; those receiving loans of more than $150,000 included business names, and those with smaller loan amounts were not named - Jobs retained, business type and lender information were also disclosed. We estimate over $880 million was provided to businesses that received over $150,000, and another $385 million was given to businesses that received smaller amounts. Over 12,650 loans have been provided so far and applications are still being processed. Since the larger loan data was released in funding tiers, we used the median of each tier to calculate our estimations. Many loans did not specify how many jobs were supposed to be saved from the program.

Not all that money will reach our local economy, however. For instance, many oilfield service companies have other offices and employees elsewhere. Conversely, many companies are located out of the area that may have employees here. JG Media, who prints Community Impact in The Woodlands, received a $2-5 million PPP loan. Very large businesses in our area also have other COVID financing options available from the federal government. View businesses that received over a million dollars through PPP.

Hometown Woodforest National Bank loaned the most money of all local banks. For those receiving loans of more than $150,000, the leading lenders in dollars loaned were, Woodforest Bank (11%), Zions Bank (9%), JP Morgan Chase Bank (7%), Spirit of Texas Bank (7%), and Frost Bank (5%). For local businesses receiving loans of less than $150,000, the leading lenders in dollars loaned were, Woodforest National Bank (11.%), JP Morgan Chase Bank (10%), Zions (8%), Bank of America (7%), Spirit & Texas (5%), BBVA (5%), Allegiance Bank (4%), Wells Fargo Bank (4%), First Financial Bank (4%) and Prosperity Bank (2%). Woodlands Online CEO Eric Kintigh stated 'We want to sincerely thank our bank for 25 years, BBVA (Compass), for its outstanding service in processing our PPP application. They proved to us that it was indeed a first come, first served process at their bank, and dispelled many other negative things stated in business media stories about the loan program. They were absolutely awesome!'.

Loans of more than $150,000 were evenly distributed among business types. As expected, Oil & Gas Operations companies received the most money with over 4%, followed by Physicians (3.8%), Full Service Restaurants (3.3%), New Car Dealers (3.2%) and Limited Service Restaurants (2.5%). Our hard-hit restaurants as a group received the most in loans.

Woodlands Online compiled the data for The Woodlands Texas, and surrounding areas: Spring, The Woodlands, Conroe, Willis, Montgomery, Magnolia, Tomball, and their nearby small towns. No government released data is perfect, but we only deleted a few loans in our zip codes that did not belong. Therefore, we assume that there are not many Woodlands area businesses with incorrect zip codes missed in our estimates.

The information received shows that the Paycheck Protection Program came through to save many Woodlands area jobs and businesses from financial catastrophe as a result of the lockdown

View all our PPP Reports for The Woodlands Area