Without the Small Business Administration, Felipe Arroyave’s company, Spectrum International Group, would not be here.
Arroyave’s company manufactures specialty contact lenses in the U.S. and exports them to nearly 70 countries around the world. But when the pandemic hit in 2020, his business dried up while overseas customs offices were closed.
“We were basically shut down for seven to eight months,” Arroyave told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was on the brink of closing the company, but then he learned that the SBA was granting disaster loans to help firm’s like his weather the pandemic. With the funds, Arroyave was able to keep paying his employees and get back to business once his international clients reopened.
Arroyave said it saddened him last week when new SBA Administrator and Atlanta resident Kelly Loeffler announced the agency would be relocating regional offices out of six cities it has deemed sanctuary cities, including Atlanta.
“I hope it doesn’t have a negative impact for small businesses such as myself and other small businesses that are always trying to get loans and to get help from the federal government,” said Arroyave, the SBA’s National Exporter of the Year for 2024.
It’s not clear why the Trump administration considers Atlanta a sanctuary city. There is no single definition of a sanctuary city, rather it is a broad term applied to jurisdictions that have policies aimed at limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement actions.
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Georgia law has banned cities and counties from adopting a sanctuary policy for about 15 years and the SBA did not respond to questions about what policies make it consider Atlanta a sanctuary city.
“While Atlanta remains a welcoming city, it is well known that Georgia state law has prohibited ‘sanctuary cities’ since 2009,” Michael Smith, a spokesman for Mayor Andre Dickens, said in a statement.
“Moving the offices out of Atlanta is even more odd given Black Enterprise and LinkedIn named our city the best place to start a business, and Money Magazine said we were the best place to live,” Smith said. “It would seem the SBA would want to remain where the action is.”
The other regional offices slated to be relocated are Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York and Seattle. In a release, the SBA said the offices will “be moved to less costly, more accessible locations that better serve the small business community and comply with federal immigration law.”
The agency will also be instituting a policy requiring citizenship verification for SBA loan applications.
It’s unclear where the Atlanta office will be relocated, or if it will even stay in Georgia.
In response to a detailed list of questions, an SBA spokesperson said, “SBA services in these areas will not be impacted by these relocations and the timeline for the regional office moves is forthcoming.”
Loeffler is a longtime Georgia resident and formerly served the state as a U.S. senator. She once co-owned the Atlanta Dream and served for many years as an executive of Sandy Springs-based Fortune 500 company, Intercontinental Exchange.
A representative for Loeffler declined an interview request and did not respond to a follow-up question about whether the SBA will keep an office in Georgia.
In an interview last week with Fox 5, Loeffler did not specify where the next office would be, but said “it could be more rural areas, it could be more suburban areas that really uphold the rule of law, that allow their police to enforce the law and to cooperate with (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement).”
Smith from Dickens' office said the city “remains committed to supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs — the lifeblood of our communities — through initiatives made available by Invest Atlanta and other partners.”
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to the Senate in 2019 to fill the seat vacated by Johnny Isakson.
When asked about the SBA relocating its Atlanta office, Kemp spokesman Garrison Douglas said in a statement that the governor “looks forward to continuing his work with the Trump administration to ensure the laws of our state and nation are followed, the future of Georgia’s small businesses remains bright, and that we retain our position as the best place to live, work, and raise a family.”
But the lack of clarity about where the Atlanta SBA office will be relocated is leaving entrepreneurs uncertain about what it could mean for them and their businesses.
Labrescia Dawson, CEO of Duluth-based Dawson’s Management, thinks if the office is closed, it will have a major impact on small businesses and the resources they can access.
“You won’t be able to just go into that office downtown to get those classes,” Dawson said.
But she also has larger questions. Dawson helps manage commercial properties, janitorial facilities and other assets for government agencies and is currently part of the SBA’s minority government contracting program. She works with a business opportunity specialist who comes to her company and helps her navigate the program. But she’s not sure what will happen if the Atlanta SBA office closes.
“Who will I call if I have a problem? If I need to scale? Will I still have that access to my (specialist)? What does this mean for small businesses at this time?” she said.
For Ken Taunton, president and CEO of the Atlanta-based staffing firm the Royster Group, moving the office doesn’t just mean local small business owners are losing access to a close physical resource — they may also be losing institutional knowledge if the current staff of the office doesn’t relocate.
Taunton first used the SBA’s resources when he started his company in 2001, which he credits for helping him learn business fundamentals like how to get loans and how to work with the government. In 2023, he was the SBA’s Small Business Person of the Year for Georgia.
“The people that I started working with, they had been with the SBA for over 10 years or more, and so they knew the resources,” Taunton said.
“If they have a whole new staff, it’s going to be pretty difficult, you know, for small businesses, entrepreneurs, to access those resources right away.”
— Staff writer Jeremy Redmon contributed to this report.
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