November 1, 2021 – El Paso County is accepting applications for its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to help the tourism and hospitality industry continue planned expansions and upgrades to their facilities, delayed due to the pandemic.

“After the military, tourism is one of our biggest economic drivers in El Paso County. Unfortunately, due to the challenges of COVID and the state and federal shutdown mandates, it has been one of the slowest to recover. As this industry rebounds, the county is thrilled to be able to help provide funding for some of those backlogged projects to start back up,” said Board of County Commissioners Chair Stan VanderWerf. “This grant will allow the affected industries to use the funds for COVID mitigation and infection prevention measures as well, so we can go about safely welcoming tourists and visitors back to all the great attractions in our county.”

The application opens today, November 1, 2021, and will remain open through November 12, at 5:00 PM.

Organizational Eligibility:

Facility must be located in El Paso County

  • For profit and nonprofit entities are both eligible. For profits may be capped at $50,000
  • Organizations that have already received support through the Regional Business Relief Fund are not eligible
  • Entity must be able to document that delays of the facility expansion or upgrade were due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Eligible Uses of Funding:

  • Assist with increased constructions costs for planned expansions and upgrades to tourism and hospitality facilities delayed due to the pandemic
  • Implement COVID-19 mitigation and infection prevention measures to enable safe resumption of tourism, travel, and hospitality services, for example, improvements to ventilation, physical barriers or partitions, signage to facilitate social distancing, provision of masks or personal protective equipment, or consultation with infection prevention professionals to develop safe reopening plans
  • Operations and programming costs are not eligible

For more information about the ARPA grant assistance and how to apply, please visit https://admin.elpasoco.com/arpa/. Completed applications and required financial documents must be submitted by November 12, 2021, at 5:00 PM.