Richmond Economic Development Corporation (REDC) announced that it will begin offering its Business Enterprise Zone Loan (BEZL) program to small businesses located in state-designated enterprise zones and eligible low-income communities of the Richmond/Petersburg MSA effective January 1, 2008. The loan pool will provide financing to small businesses for acquiring or renovating "owner-occupied" new or old commercial or mixed-use properties, up to $250,000. The program is designed to promote economic and commercial revitalization in targeted areas having higher poverty and unemployment rates, lower median incomes, and whose growth and prosperity are lagging behind other regions in the State of Virginia. Although, the product will be available in any qualifying communities in the MSA, which consists of four cities and sixteen counties, preference will be given communities that agree to participate in the program. To ensure that our program compliments local economic development initiatives, REDC will coordinate the delivery of the BEZL product through local economic development officials.

To overcome the limits of the BEZL product and to leverage our earmarked funds, REDC has formed an alliance with Crater Development Company (CDC) and James River Development Corporation (JRDC) to finance projects up to $500,000. Under this agreement, REDC will utilize its BEZL product in combination with a 504 loan through either the CDC or JRDC, depending upon location. As a result, small businesses will be able to obtain affordable fixed, non-callable interest rate, borrow up to 90% of the project cost, and repay the loan over twenty years. With interest rates on 504 loans being linked to the 10-year U.S. Treasury note, the blended interest rate for loans made under this agreement will, for the most part, be "below-market", given current money market conditions.

REDC is a licensed financial intermediary of the U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) Microenterprise and 504 Development Loan programs, and has been a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, since 2000. Through REDC's various loans programs, it has provided financing to over 629 small and disadvantaged businesses aggregating in excess of $21.5 million, which has created/retained over 4,186 jobs. With the licensing of REDC as 504 Certified Development Company in July 2006, the organization instantaneously became a regional small business lender. It also increased the maximum loan for the organization up to $4 million, dependent upon the type of business.

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