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Promoting Business Expansion and Job Creation at Southeast Community Capital
Southeast Community Capital provides the growth capital businesses across Tennessee and the Southeast need for expansion and job creation. SCC was created in December 1999 as a statewide effort to increase access to capital for Tennessee's disadvantaged small businesses. SCC received its CDFI certification in May of 2001. With headquarters in Oak Ridge, SCC has added offices in Chattanooga, Memphis, and Nashville, TN. In each city, SCC has created a public-private partnership between the city and financial institutions. In each location, SCC manages a business opportunity fund, as well as its regional revolving loan fund that services all of Tennessee, northern Alabama, and northern Georgia. SCC's strategy is to grow each of its funds to more than $5 million so that each fund will be self-sustaining and can meet local demand. Each fund focuses on disadvantaged areas and individuals for business growth and job creation in the local market. SCC is in the process of creating two funds, a regional loan fund for East Tennessee as part of the Nine Counties One Vision initiative and a city fund for Baton Rouge, LA.

For information or to contact SCC about possible investment opportunities email gwin@sccapital.org or go to www.sccapital.org.
[Published in News from the Districts, Community Developments Investments, Summer 2004]

Loans Aid Struggling Businesses
A new loan pool in Memphis will help small and minority-owned businesses that ordinarily couldn't get a business loan from a bank. The Memphis Business Opportunity Fund is a partnership of three local banks, city government, and a nonprofit community development agency. Union Planters Corp., First Tennessee Bank, and National Bank of Commerce have each committed $5 million to the fund, which is also receiving support from the Federal Home Loan Bank. Loans are expected to range from $35,000 up to about $500,000, with a goal of loaning $50 million over the next 10 years.

For more information, contact Southeast Community Capital, a nonprofit technical assistance provider administering the fund, at (901) 526-9300.
[Published in News from the Districts, Community Developments, Spring 2003]

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