BOEDC finds big bucks for small businesses.

In response to the shortage of commercial loans available to small businesses, the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (BOEDC) has tapped alternative sources and delivered over half a million dollars in new loans to borough firms in the last six months.

Roy Berman, head of BOEDC's Finance & Business Services Division, projects that the loans, which range from $16,500 to $215,000, will create and retain 25 jobs and finance growth which traditional lenders had overlooked.

BOEDC, a division of the Office of Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, linked young, successful businesses with relatively unknown small business loan programs offered through the Regional Economic Development Assistance Corporation (REDAC), the New York Business Development Corporation (NYBDC) and Fleet Bank.

"These businesses have strong credit histories and great potential, but conventional lending programs aren't usually set up to meet their small loan requests," says Berman, who helps companies fine tune business plans, structures and packages the loans, and then pleads their cases before lenders. "Programs like REDAC and NYBDC, on the other hand, are designed to look beyond the numbers and factor in things like the character of the business owner."

BOEDC's intermediary role made all the difference in the case of Blue Mountain Products, a Bronx-based manufacturer of health foods. Its approved NYBDC loan is funding Blue Mountain's first retail outlet on the ground level of its manufacturing and bottling plant at Intervale Avenue and 169th Street. "Banks weren't the way to go," says Jeffrey Scotchman, manager of the 4-year-old, family-owned company which had been turned down by banks in spite of a good credit rating. The tide turned when Blue Mountain reached out to BOEDC, which quickly brought them to the attention of NYBDC, a state program with more flexible underwriting standards and an interest in assisting minority and womenowned firms.

"Now we're looking forward to selling our products directly to our neighbors and increasing the retail activity in this area," says Scotchman.

Neighborhood development is in fact one of the reasons Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer wants greater access to capital for small firms. "We all know that small businesses are the foundation of our city's economy, and yet when they need money to improve or expand, they're shut out by lenders," he says. "Fortunately for Bronx businesses, BOEDC knows where some of the open doors are."

Emmanuel Manessis, owner of Splendid Restaurant on Southern Blvd., recently got approval of a Fleet Bank loan to go toward leasehold improvements which he says will mean "more business, more jobs." Denise Gelardin, a Paris-trained clothing designer who started D.C. Domino fashions from her Riverdale home two years ago, credits her REDAC loan with giving her the ability to make sales pitches to Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. "It's nice to get orders, but if I don't have the money to buy the materials, I don't need to bother returning to that customer ever again."

Fred Cunningham says his Fleet Bank loan will go toward updating and expanding his La Dor's clothing store on East 233rd Street and White Plains Road. "I had been turned down by banks in the past, but BOEDC was very dedicated, they really followed up step by step to make sure everything was in order." His loan was approved and deposited in his account in an "unbelievable" five days.

BOEDC President Carolyn E. Smith, herself a former small business lender with Chase Manhattan Bank, has the perspective of someone who's been on the other side. "To be a successful entrepreneur you have to be clever, aggressive, know your product and know your competition. The small business owners who come to us bring this to the table. But we then need to help them package their loan proposal so that the lenders will come through."

"There aren't enough loan programs out there yet for small businesses," says Berman. "But in the meantime, we're showing companies that when their bank says 'no', BOEDC can sometimes get them a 'yes'."