Purpose

The MSF Awardee Relief Initiative is intended to provide temporary relief to Michigan Strategic Fund borrowers, grantees and other incentive awardees. Relief will vary based on a case by case review of requests and may include:

• Payment deferment
• Milestone extensions
• Maturity date
• Extensions
• Refinance authorizations
• Re-size project scopes by reducing qualified new jobs and/or award amounts 
• Extensions of agreement execution deadlines

Initiative Summary

The MSF Awardee Relief Initiative temporarily authorizes the following:

• Provide up to 12 months of deferred payments on any direct loan, loan participation, equity agreement or other financing agreement
• Extend Milestone due dates, maturity dates, or other dates within existing loan, grant, or equity agreements for a period not to exceed 12 months
• Approve refinance requests that do not negatively impact the MSF position or likelihood of repayment and
• Approve extension of loan, grant, or equity agreement execution deadlines for a period not to exceed 12 months
• Eliminate milestones and reducing qualified new job requirements with a proportional reduction of the grant award, in order to re-size the project scope.

Refinancing will not permit principal forgiveness, interest reduction, or re-amortization on the MSF debt, but may result in term extension. Payment deferment would consist of either principal or principal and interest relief as needed. The Initiative will be in place for one year from the time of approval and
available for any MSF program awardee or ultimate beneficiary negatively financially impacted as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. All applicants will be evaluated on at least the following criteria:

• Evidence of suspension of tenant evictions for a minimum period matching the length of any MSF payment deferment or a period up to 12 months, if applicable; and,
• Income loss, credit enhancement needs or restrictions, retooling of facilities to meet emergency needs, job creation issues, job retention issues, other community needs or project delays due to COVID-19.

The Initiative will require applicants to meet the following requirements:

• Applicant must be and remain current on all reporting requirements associated with their MSF Agreements;
• Applicant may be required to submit periodic reporting during the deferment period. To the extent applicable, reporting requirements may consist of lender updates, residential and commercial rent rolls, jobs numbers at the project, and other financial or project information requested by the MEDC;
• Owner distributions (beyond normal payroll) will be prohibited during any MSF payment deferment period, with the exception of those distributions necessary to cover the taxes of the company or project.

All requests will need to be approved by the MSF Fund Manager, the MSF President and the State Treasurer. All MSF support through this initiative will be written into to existing award agreements or addendums, with terms and conditions in accordance with state law. The MEDC will provide a report to the MSF Board of all delegated actions taken under the Initiative on a quarterly basis.

How to apply

• For Community Revitilization Program (CRP) amendments, please contact Lynda Franke, 517-241-6731, frankel1@michigan.org.
• For other community development programs use the CAT Team Map to find the contact that represents your area.
• For Business Development Program projects, use the Business Development Managers map to find the contact that represents your area.