City offering cash payment to small businesses impacted by COVID-19 restrictions
As part of Reignite Adelaide, the City of Adelaide is offering a grant to support micro and small businesses that have been impacted by the recent trading restrictions.
Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
Michael Krieg is well positioned to discuss the impact of the post-Christmas trading restrictions on businesses in Adelaide’s CBD. He owns the iconic Rhino Room on Pirie Street plus two other small businesses in the East End.
Nine months of capacity limits for hospitality, bans on dancing and the call to work from home this past January saw his trade plummet to its lowest point during the pandemic or, indeed, its history.
“January was our worst month in twenty-eight years in all three businesses,” says Krieg.
“In twenty-five years of trading for Rhino Room, and ten for Howling Owl, and twenty-eight for Urban Cow Studio – it’s been the worst month in every one of those businesses.
“Obviously, there’s zero trade when we’re actually locked down. But for any other time in the pandemic that was actually the worst month.”
The City of Adelaide has been working to reverse the decline in foot traffic and visitor numbers in the CBD.
As part of its Reignite Adelaide initiatives, it has announced the City Business Saver Grant, a cash reimbursement targeting micro and small businesses.
Eligible businesses can apply for a cash reimbursement equivalent to fifty per cent of the third quarter 2021-22 financial year rate.
Krieg expects to receive around $1000 and welcomes the additional support. He is appreciative of two State Government grants in January and said he is lucky to have “reasonable landlords”, however staying afloat has meant significantly dipping into personal savings.
Café owner Fiefy Sineenart has also applied for the new grant. She has operated her Pirie Street café for ten years and has another on Flinders Street. The absence of office workers in January greatly impacted both businesses.
“We opened after the public holidays at New Year and there was just no one,” Sineenart says. “No one in the city at all.”
She is hopeful that the final lifting of restrictions and a continued focus on masks and hand hygiene will end the current trend of offices rotating half of their staff to work from home during the week.
“For the last of couple weeks, you know, the restrictions have been lifted and I can see more people back in the city.
“I think now it’s a matter of people actually do feel like it’s safe to go out.”
Strong trading during Fringe has also given Krieg reason to be optimistic.
With the City’s support, he was able to close Hyde Street on Fridays and Saturdays during Fringe, giving Rhino Room patrons and nearby office workers a reason to stay and spend.
Council also waived the closure fees and, as Krieg tells it, pulled out all stops to accommodate his very-last-minute request for a Sunday closure on the March long weekend.
“The assistance we’ve got from the Council has been just amazing.”
Krieg says he and other city traders still have a long way to go to reverse the loss in trade of the past two years.
“I’m just hoping the new government… recognises how difficult it is,” says Krieg, “because people are still not coming into the city in like they used to.”
The City Business Saver Grant program is open until Saturday, 30 April 2022.
Businesses that have received either the COVID-19 Business Hardship Grant SA or COVID-19 Tourism, Hospitality and Gym Grant SA will be instantly approved on provision of proof of their assessment outcome.
