YOUNGSTOWN — Even though it is well past the deadline to request assistance, Gov. Mike DeWine asked the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide low-interest loans to businesses impacted by the May 28 gas explosion at the former Realty Tower in downtown Youngstown.

The Realty explosion “caused significant economic injury to its neighboring downtown businesses,” DeWine wrote Monday in a letter to SBA Director Edward Fears.

Businesses surveyed by the Ohio and Mahoning County Emergence Management agencies “have either had to dismiss employees or reduce employees’ hours” because of the explosion, DeWine wrote.

A survey of the affected businesses showed that at least five of them “in the disaster area have suffered substantial economic injury as a result of the disaster and are in need of financial assistance not otherwise available on reasonable terms.”

The Ohio EMA didn’t provide names Monday of the businesses impacted, but DeWine’s letter stated “several restaurants depend on heavy foot traffic” for downtown offices.

Under SBA rules, DeWine had to submit a request within 60 days of the disaster for the SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan program funding. Monday is more than two months past that July 27 deadline.

In the letter, DeWine acknowledged that missed deadline, adding that the state is “engaged in multiple response and recovery efforts, including four significant severe storm and tornado events and assisting first responders with public safety issues in Springfield.”

Those responses wouldn’t have interfered with any state request to SBA for Realty.

But DeWine wrote: “The demolition of the building that experienced the explosion was ongoing through Sept. 25, severely limiting access to parking and pedestrian walkways. The restricted access caused economic injury to the neighboring businesses which then needed to be documented and provided to Ohio Emergency Management Agency to be included with this request.”

The Realty demolition work didn’t start until July 12 and finished Sept. 25.

State Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, said the Realty explosion “was devastating to many businesses in downtown Youngstown. I appreciate Gov. DeWine’s leadership and request for assistance for businesses that were significantly impacted. I also urge the U.S. SBA to issue low-interest loans to those businesses.”

A May 28 gas explosion caused significant damage to the 13-story Realty Tower on East Federal Street. The blast killed Akil Drake, who worked at the Chase Bank on the building’s ground floor, and injured nine others. Building owner YO Properties 47 LLC decided June 17 to demolish the 23-apartment structure, with work starting almost a month later.

A June 14 preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation, stated a four-person scrap-removal crew, engaged by GreenHeart Companies of Boardman — owned by Brian Angelili, YO Properties 47 LLC’s managing member — was working in a basement area underneath the building’s sidewalk removing old utility lines when a crew member sawed three times into a pipe mistakenly believing it to not have natural gas in it. That caused the explosion.

A final report is expected to take one to two years to complete.

The location will be a parking lot for the time-being with YO Properties LLC and LY Property Management Group, which managed Realty Tower, saying the future “development of this site will be an extensive process. In the interim, the site will be leveled and will remain vacant as we begin the lengthy process of reimagining and planning a new project of this historic site.”

Right before demolition started, Youngstown set aside $200,000 to provide short-term assistance grants to businesses experiencing financial hardships because of the Realty explosion. Businesses were eligible for grants up to $10,000.

The city and its partners scheduled The Open, an Oct. 19 event, to help bring people back downtown. The event will have numerous bands perform throughout the day with all of the food and beverages to be sold by downtown businesses.