A northern New Jersey-based infrastructure contractor. A New York City-area buildings construction manager. A Denver-based energy industry builder.
Overshadowed by the tens of thousands of small federal rescue loans made under other programs, a less-noticed federal financial aid boost for bigger companies—the Main Street Lending Program—has operated during the pandemic months to benefit these three firms and a handful of other contractors and engineers. They were able to borrow far larger amounts than what was available in other programs, sometimes expanding their credit by tens of millions of dollars.