St. John County, FL
Getting Back to Business
HUD Grants Management with CAPGEMS
A popular tourist destination in the heart of Florida, St. Johns County is home to many small businesses and families that rely on tourism for their livelihood. Capital Access began providing direct program management services to St. Johns County in 2018. Since then, we’ve helped them manage their HUD grants and fully implement their CDBG, CDBG-CARES Act, and CDBG-Disaster Recovery programs.
Our grants management program helps the county comply with all HUD regulations and reporting requirements, including drafting the clients’ 2021-2026 Consolidated Plan, Annual Action Plan, and its Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report.
In 2022, Capital Access helped St. Johns County develop its Back to Business (B2B) program, which produced 60 COVID relief small business assistance grants funded with nearly $600,000 in CDBG-CV funds.
The county’s Small Business Recovery Grant Program assisted small businesses that were losing revenue because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The grants of up to $10,000 offset costs such as payroll, rent, and utilities. This program allowed businesses to continue operating while they couldn’t serve customers and until they found other funding sources.
Our CAPGEMS software helped the County develop electronic portals using a customized web-based grants management platform.
Puerto Rico
Designing a Small Business Financing Program Post-Disaster
In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and subsequent earthquakes, small businesses across Puerto Rico faced severe disruptions. To support recovery and stimulate economic revitalization, a $300 million Small Business Grant & Loan Program was launched using CDBG-DR funds.
Capital Access was engaged to design and implement a comprehensive system to manage grant and loan production, compliance, and reporting. Leveraging our proprietary CAPGEMS platform, we developed business and functional requirements for a web-based management information system tailored to track applications, automate documentation, and ensure audit-readiness.
Our solution included:
- HUD-compliant grants administration and project management tools
- Customized application review and verification templates
- A secure, digital file cabinet for monitoring and audits
- Milestone-driven processing and project tracking
- Automated grant agreement generation
- Payments processing and financial reporting
- Real-time production and expenditure monitoring
- Ongoing expert support to address challenges and ensure program momentum
This system provided the infrastructure needed to deliver critical funding efficiently and transparently—helping small businesses across Puerto Rico recover, rebuild, and grow.