Category Archives: Obtaining a Loan

B&I Loans Help Rural Communities

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Mike Hoyl

Mike Hoyl, Senior VP, Western Commerce Bank in Lovington

You don’t have to live off the map to qualify for a U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development loan in New Mexico.

Most of the state is considered rural for the purposes of this economic development program, which can back loans as high as $25 million to qualifying ventures in towns with 50,000 or fewer people. That excludes only Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Bernalillo, Las Cruces and Santa Fe, while towns close to these metro areas easily qualify.

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Identity Theft Victim Gets Accion Loan to Start Educational Nonprofit

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Edwin Rios

Edwin Rios, Loan Assistant, Accion New Mexico – Arizona – Colorado

Mark Medley was working with a business consultant to recover from identity theft when he heard about Accion New Mexico–Arizona–Colorado. What Medley learned while trying to repair his credit prompted him to start a nonprofit — ID Theft Resolutions — to help others protect themselves from identity thieves and to rebound as quickly and completely as possible if their efforts fail.

Medley got a loan from Accion to help him get the nonprofit going after obtaining his designation as a 501c(3) nonprofit. Accion offers loans as small as $200 and as large as $300,000 to people who might otherwise be turned down by lenders because they are a startup or have credit problems.

Medley qualified in both cases: His credit score was destroyed by identity theft and his nonprofit was the equivalent of a startup.

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Loans Help Contractor Build, Renovate Homes in Native Communities

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F. Leroy Pacheco

F. Leroy Pacheco, CEO, The Loan Fund

Doris Sandoval works in an industry hard hit by the recession and lagging recovery, yet by following a strategic plan of borrowing through lines of credit, the owner of SSC Construction has kept her business going strong.

SSC Construction is based in San Felipe Pueblo in northern New Mexico near Algodones. The woman- and Native-owned company builds houses on tribal lands all over New Mexico and employs seven members of Sandoval’s family and numerous subcontractors.

While most contractors struggled to find work and financing as home construction slowed and home prices dropped, SSC Construction received five lines of credit from The Loan Fund to underwrite various building projects in Native communities.

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Lender-Client Relationship Built on Trust, Mutual Benefits

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Jordan van Rijn, NM Loan Officer, Accion New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado

By Jordan van Rijn, NM Loan Officer, Accion New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado

Mauro Nava’s seven-year relationship with microlender Accion New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado paid off when the Mexico City native and his Ukrainian-born business partner, Olena Dziuba, decided to open a health clinic to serve residents of Albuquerque’s underserved South Valley. Clínica la Esperanza opened in October 2011 at Bridge and Isleta boulevards with seed money from the two partners to remodel the building and a line of credit from Accion to pay bills until the business started generating revenue.

Nava first contacted Accion in 2005 for funds to start a mobile radiography business called On-Site Radiography. Nava’s perfect payment history on past Accion loans made him a good candidate for the most recent investment. Continue reading →

Outside Capital Helps Aerial Photography Company Take Off

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F. Leroy Pacheco

F. Leroy Pacheco, CEO, The Loan Fund

Blue Skies Consulting knows a lot about building a business through strategic growth funded by outside capital. The Belen-based aerial photography company is a client of The Loan Fund, a top-ranked community development financial institution that provides loans and other banking services to underserved markets in New Mexico.

Blue Skies began its relationship with The Loan Fund in 2009 when it sought funding to buy aerial camera system components in preparation for the purchase of a digital aerial camera designed for high-resolution photography. Two loans in 2011 made it possible for the company to buy the Microsoft Vexcel UltraCam Lp, the only photogrammetric digital mapping camera in New Mexico. Continue reading →

More than Microloans: Accion Helps Trio Launch New Brewery

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Walt Taylor

Walt Taylor, Commercial Loan Officer, Accion New Mexico ∙ Arizona ∙ Colorado

A new brewery is coming to Albuquerque in June, run by three local beer-loving entrepreneurs. Bosque Brewing is the brainchild of partners Jotham Michnovicz, Kevin Jameson and Gabe Jensen; in their corner is nonprofit lender Accion, which extended a loan of $100,000 to help the partners build a brew house and cover their initial operating expenses.

The idea for the brewery started two years ago, before any of the partners had ever made a batch of home brew, Jameson said. The three were united by longtime friendships, one family tie — Michnovicz and Jenson are cousins — and membership in the same church. All three attended New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

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Line of Credit Can Smooth Out Cash Flow Extremes

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Matthew Miles

Matthew Miles, Commercial Loan Officer, Los Alamos National Bank

People who operate seasonal businesses often find that lines of credit make a lot more sense than traditional loans when dealing with the dramatic cash flows that are typical of such ventures. Steve and Tracy Kirkpatrick have operated in Albuquerque for 20 years as Gourmet Specialties Southwest, a Hickory Farms franchise. Before that, Steve was an employee of the Ohio-based company known for its specialty cheese, meats and other gourmet foods.

Each fall the Kirkpatricks activate their bank line of credit to purchase inventory and set up 17 seasonal kiosks and storefronts in New Mexico and West Texas. By the following January 15, they repay the line of credit in full.

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Quemado Rito Convenience Store Puts Rural Community Back on the Map

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F. Leroy Pacheco

F. Leroy Pacheco, President and CEO, The Loan Fund

Tommy Padilla works full time for the state Livestock Board and owns a 2,000-acre cattle ranch near Quemado, a rural community that’s home to 781 people. In 2008, he saw an opportunity to provide a needed service to motorists driving through the town.

Quemado is on U.S. Highway 60 in rural western New Mexico. For decades, the community supported five gas stations and four restaurants that served travelers heading to and from Arizona and California. But after east-west Interstates 10 and 40 were built in the 1960s, Quemado began a slow decline.

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Jobs Act Frees Cash for Small-Business Borrowing

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Floyd Morelos

Floyd Morelos, Vice President, Century Bank

One silver lining in the economy’s slow recovery is that deflated real-estate values have given many business owners the opportunity to purchase the building they’ve been leasing or to buy land on which they can construct a new building for their business. The federal government helps by offering loan guarantees through its 504 loan program. Under temporary provisions of the Small Business Jobs Act, the 504 program lets borrowers refinance mortgages on properties they already own.

Created in 1980 to encourage economic development, the 504 program has made it easier for businesses — the biggest job-creators in the country — to expand through the acquisition of assets. The program provides long-term, fixed-rate financing for the purchase of land, buildings, machinery, equipment and certain improvements. Continue reading →

Truck Puts Chef on Road to Prosperity

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F. Leroy Pacheco

F. Leroy Pacheco, CEO, The Loan Fund

Kimberley Calvo relishes creativity. The former executive chef at Intel and UNM introduced healthy cuisine to employees and students before starting The Seasonal Palate, a catering company. While looking for a restaurant location to expand her business, Calvo realized that her business model could be just as creative as her cooking.

“It was going to be a small fortune,” she said about the cost of renting and equipping the building she was considering in the small town ofPlacitas. She also wondered if there were enough residents to support a full-time restaurant. “So instead of trying to bring them to me,” she said, “I would bring me to them.”

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