Community Capital New York, a nonprofit alternative lender to small businesses in the Hudson Valley, has launched its “A Million for Main Street” loan program with $1 million in capital awarded late last year by the state in the fourth round of Gov. Andrew Cuomo”™s regional economic development funding competition.
The state award supports the Hawthorne-based lender”™s Hudson Valley Opportunity Fund, a revolving loan fund to help small businesses start, grow and hire. A spokesperson for Community Capital said the agency will match the state with $1 million in U.S. Small Business Administration loan capital, making a total of $2 million dollars in revolving loan funds available to businesses that do not yet qualify for traditional bank financing in the seven-county region the microlender serves.
The fixed-rate loans, ranging from $5,000 to $250,000, are targeted for enterprises owned by minorities, women or military veterans and for businesses in industries identified as regional job-creating priorities by the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council, which include tourism, agriculture, food service and hospitality, and businesses located in an urban core or on the waterfront.
A spokesperson said the fund also will allow Community Capital to make lines of credit available to borrowers, to fund mixed-use development projects and to offer financing to nonprofit organizations for facilities and capital improvements.
The loans may be used for working capital, equipment, materials and inventory, marketing, real estate, building repairs, leasehold improvements and energy-saving upgrades.
“The award of $1 million for loan capital will enable Community Capital to make loans to business owners and potential business owners that need access to capital to launch and grow,” Community Capital New York Executive Director Kim Jacobs said. “We recognize independent, locally owned businesses are the backbone of our local economy and we are eager to help them succeed.”
Community Capital officials said the first recipient of a Million for Main Street loan was Mercedes Nunez, owner of Palisades Cleaning Service in Tomkins Cove in Rockland County. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, the 39-year-old entrepreneur used a small business line of credit and $75,000 loan from Community Capital”™s Hudson Valley Opportunity Fund to add more commercial clients to her cleaning business and increase her staff from 17 to 35 workers. Â Â
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