Community Development Block Grant Funds Available

Jeff Budd, City Manager

The City of Coldwater has a community development block grant revolving loan fund of over $700,000 available to be loaned to any business in Coldwater, which can also be extended to Branch County.  The link below gives an overview of the program and a more thorough guidelines.  The program is designed to create jobs as well as meet the national objectives.

The RLF Loan Fund is administered by Cinnaire Lending, but is under the auspices of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).  The MEDC is threatening to pull all of the funding back to the State level if there is no loan activity by the end of the year.   This would allow them to use the funds in areas outside of Coldwater and Branch County.

If you are looking for gap financing or even a stand alone loan, these are the opportunities they are looking for.  The amounts do not need to be large and they can go to finance a number of items.  For example, a recent loan was done in Paw Paw for 5% fixed rate with a 20 year amortization for a beauty salon.  These loans can also cover the deficit of loan-to-value ratios, such as the bank can only approve them for 80%, this program might be able to cover the remaining 20%.

I wanted to get this information out there before the MEDC pulls our funding.  If you have any questions on the program please contact Greg Nicholas at 517-896-1100. 

We really don’t want to see these funds disappear or become available to other communities.  These are federal dollars passed through the State so there are strings attached, but it may reduce bank risk on riskier loans.   

CDBG Loan Program
Term Sheet

-Jeff Budd, City Manager