Title
Grow Gainesville Fund and Capital Access Program (B)
Explanation
Since its inception, the CRA’s programs, incentives, and outreach have been primarily focused on real estate development and public improvements as the preferred tools to help alleviate slum and blight in CRA areas. Until 2010, direct assistance to businesses, excluding real estate developers, was been limited to façade grant and paint programs. Neither the CRA nor the City currently had more traditional economic development finance programs and incentives that are focused on alleviating slum and blight through economic investment in new business and job creation. After the real estate market shifted in 2008 and new private development was stalled, CRA staff has experienced an increase in inquires from non-real estate businesses requesting assistance. It became increasingly more challenging to effectively respond to these requests as the previously existing programs and incentives were focused on real estate, not business assistance.
In response to these factors, the CRA contracted with the National Development Council (NDC) in November 2009, to conduct a study and analysis related to Economic Development Finance resources. From this study, six concepts were approved by the CRA to move forward to policy and procedure development. Those six concepts were Infrastructure Fund, Pre-Development Fund, Leverage Fund, Jobs Grant, Non-Profit SBA 7(a), and SBA 504 Loan Fund. Following this study the CRA enacted the Grow Gainesville Fund and Capital Access Programs in 2010.
SBA 7(a) - Grow America Fund “Grow Gainesville Fund”
NDC, through their Grow America Fund (GAF), is the nation’s largest SBA-licensed Small Business Lending Company that is owned and operated by a non-profit organization. NDC offers Community Partners a loan program which can leverage their capital by four to one, and lend to eligible businesses. The SBA does not make loans; it issues federal-government backed guarantees t...
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