Six months ago, Craig and Veronica Bradley started applying for a loan that was going to finance their dream - opening up their very own brewpub in Dallas.

The couple gathered their resources, found a bank, asked for about $400,000 loan to get their vision off the ground and were pleasantly surprised when they were offered even more financing through the U.S. Small Business Administration. The bank loved their business plan.

In December, when it came time to submit everything, they lost contact with the SBA.

The federal agency that helps obtain low risk loans for small businesses had gone dark, along with many other agencies deemed non-essential during the record-setting government shutdown.

Veronica and Craig Bradley, owners of Vector Brewing, pose for a portrait at Lakewood Brewing Co. on Wednesday, January 23, 2019. Construction on Vector Brewing, which will be at the corner of Walnut Hill Ln and Audelia Rd, has been delayed because of the federal government shut down. Lakewood Brewing Co. has stepped in to help. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

“It was ready to go, every T was crossed, every I was dotted,” Veronica Bradley said with a groan while sitting in the front room of Lakewood Brewing Co., the brewery her husband worked at for seven years before leaving to launch this new venture.

“We weren’t really paying attention to politics because we were wrapping Christmas presents and dealing with our kids and whatever. We heard that the government might shut down,” she said. “At the time, we didn’t know that the SBA would be a part of it.”

She doesn’t remember who notified her the shutdown had affected the couple’s loan for Vector Brewing. She’s blocked that out of her memory.

The backlog

The shutdown has halted the processing of small business loans all across the country and a backlog is building. In Texas, it could have a particularly outsized impact on businesses, according to a recent study by personal finance site ValuePenguin.

The study takes into account the number loans issued, the sum of those loans and the total number of jobs supported by them. The impact of the shutdown is “absolutely hurting small businesses right now,” said Justin Song a senior research analyst at ValuePenguin.

The SBA manages about $200 million in loans per day nationwide, and as many as 430,000 Texans could be affected, according to the study.

Thousands of Texas companies rely on SBA loans to fund a wide variety of things ranging from paying employees, buying inventory, marketing and purchasing land. Veronica and Craig are the only employees in their newly started company, and they planned to use the loan for nearly every aspect of the business.

The Bradleys have architects drawing up floor plans and building contractors ready to start. They need plates and kitchen equipment - the brewing equipment alone will cost them an $80,000 payment in the near future. But the future site of Vector Brewing still sits vacant, just the shell of a former CrossFit gym.

1 / 2The future location of Vector Brewing as photographed on Wednesday, January 23, 2019. Construction on Vector Brewing, which will be at the corner of Walnut Hill Ln and Audelia Rd, has been delayed because of the federal government shut down. Lakewood Brewing Co. has stepped in to help.(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer) 2 / 2The future location of Vector Brewing as photographed on Wednesday, January 23, 2019. Construction on Vector Brewing, which will be at the corner of Walnut Hill Ln and Audelia Rd, has been delayed because of the federal government shut down. Lakewood Brewing Co. has stepped in to help.(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

Even with the deal announced Friday to reopen the government for three weeks, Vector Brewing’s six-month construction time frame is already delayed about 100 days, by the couple’s estimate.

And that’s if the rest of the people they’re working with don’t get other jobs.

“They don’t have to wait for us, and I don’t expect them to. They’ve got businesses to run as well. It piles fast. They’ve gotta make their living, too,” Veronica said.

There’s no certainty Congress will reach a deal to fund the government beyond Feb. 15. and an SBA loan can take up to three months to process.

If the government doesn’t stay open, the Bradleys could turn to other sources of funding, which experts say would drive up costs.

“If they need loan processing ASAP, they’ll have to turn to online lenders and those can be more expensive,” Song said. “You can imagine the pain of a business owner pressed for time.”

The interior of Taproom at Lakewood Brewing Co. on Wednesday, January 23, 2019. Construction on Vector Brewing, which will be at the corner of Walnut Hill Ln and Audelia Rd, has been delayed because of the federal government shut down. Lakewood Brewing Co. has stepped in to help. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

A community built on beer

The SBA has committed to expediting loan processing when the shutdown ends, but the Bradleys are worried about the backlog that’s been building for 35 days.

On a lark, Veronica said she took to Facebook one day recently to post about her quickly approaching birthday.

“I was like hey my birthday’s in two weeks... do you know a million people? Can you have a million people send me a buck?”

The email notifications started coming in. Friends, family and people she had never met before were making donations of $10 and $20. Her husband came home and asked her what she did. His phone was blowing up.

“The dollars we’ve gotten and, even more importantly, the messages people have been sending have saved my life. Because I was in a very dark place,” Veronica said.

Other local breweries have stepped up to help as well, including the Bradleys’ longtime friend and Lakewood Brewing Co. founder Wim Bens.

Lakewood Brewing Co. will host a fundraiser from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. Bens said $1 from every pint and pizza sold will go toward funding Vector Brewing.

“We will get open. It might take longer, it might cost a lot more. But we will get open and we’ll thank everybody. I don’t know how yet, but we’re going to thank everybody,” said Veronica.