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Housing & Community | Real Life Stories « Community Lending Program »
Community Lending Program Success Stories
Barking Up the Right Tree – First Resource Bank Uses CLP to Support Growing Internet-based Business in Exton, PA
Jill Gizzio founded DogToys.com, a successful Internet-based business in Exton, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia, in 1997 with $20,000 in personal savings. DogToys.com sells thousands of high quality pet supplies through its websites and affiliate sites. Since then, she has nurtured it into a multi-million dollar business, with four full-time and a number of seasonal part-time employees. So successful has this e-tail business been that it outgrew the warehouse space the company had been leasing. That’s when Gizzio decided to purchase her own building to be used as a distribution point and business headquarters.
Late last year, Gizzio visited Gary Davis at FHLBank Pittsburgh member First Resource Bank for help in financing her dream. “Our business had grown to the point where we needed more space for storage and operations,” said Gizzio. “We went to First Resource Bank for help in financing the expansion, and they came through for us in a big way.”
Because DogToys.com met the definition of a small business, it was able to qualify for a $920,000 five-year, low-cost loan from FHLBank’s Community Lending Program (CLP). CLP funding, along with additional financing from First Resource Bank, met total purchase costs of $1.15 million.
“First Resource Bank makes it a priority to serve the financing needs of small businesses in our area,” said Davis. “FHLBank Pittsburgh's Community Lending Program helps us to do so, ensuring that communities thrive and prosper.”
Added Gizzio, “Thanks to First Resource Bank and FHLBank Pittsburgh, we now have a new home.”
DoyToys.com is a perfect example of how CLP may be used not just for housing and infrastructure improvements but to support small businesses as well. A wide variety of community and economic development projects can take advantage of CLP loans to create housing, improve business districts and strengthen neighborhoods. CLP is designed to help member financial institutions meet their community investment goals while maintaining and enhancing their own profitability.
FHLBank Pittsburgh is proud to support CLP projects such as DogToys.com throughout Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other areas served by member banks. If you have a community or economic development project in the works within your service area that requires funding, CLP might be the resource you need to make the project happen. Click here for more information on how to apply for funding.
More Success Stories…
The Dime Bank Uses CLP to Support Hampton Inn Construction in Tunkhannock
Many years ago, tanning was the chief industry in the small borough of Tunkhannock, PA, tucked along the Susquehanna River a little more than 30 miles north of Wilkes-Barre. More recently, many residents have been employed by the Procter & Gamble plant nearby. Today, drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale is the region’s booming industry, and with that boom has come a significant shortage of hotel rooms. A new 67-room Hampton Inn on East Tioga Street, however, will soon help to ease that shortage
Hampshire County, West Virginia – Shaping up for a Healthier Future
It had been a long time in the works. Identified several years ago by Hampshire County officials as a community health care need, a state-of-the-art wellness and fitness center was conceived, constructed and opened in the community of Romney, WV – helping area residents get in shape for a healthier future.
Franklin Commons – An Uncommon Facility in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
About four years ago, David and Marian Moskowitz decided to purchase a 100-year-old vacant and decaying industrial building located in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania and convert it into an educational, corporate and recreational facility called Franklin Commons.
Former Meadville School Closes the Book on Sitting Empty – Transformed into Affordable Housing and Commercial Office Space
After sitting empty nearly ten years, the former Meadville Area Junior High School closed the book on vacancy for good in the fall of 2007. The 90-year-old building received new life when it was transformed into a 56-unit residential apartment complex for low- to moderate-income families as well as a commercial office facility.
IMAX Opens in Reading, a Marquee CLP-Funded Project
On August 8, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and Reading Mayor Tom McMahon unveiled a new state-of-the-art 11-screen cinema complex in Reading, PA that provides residents the ultimate moviegoing experience.
Three Municipalities Upgrade Their
Infrastructure; Local Bank
Commits $8 Million with the Help of CLP
How
does one community bank meet the needs of three municipal
authorities, save local taxpayers money and enhance
its own reputation for excellent customer service?
Creative Refinancing Clears
Way for Senior Housing Renovation
At a ceremony at One West Penn Apartments in Carlisle,
PA, this July, U.S. Rep. Todd Platts and Christopher
Gulotta, executive director of the Cumberland County
Housing and Redevelopment Authority (CCHRA), announced
$6.7 million in Community Lending Program (CLP) funding
that has resulted in the innovative refinancing of
the complex's existing mortgage and a lowered interest
rate.
Updated Fire Company Facility Improves Equipment,
Service for Community
Mercer County State Bank, Sandy Lake, PA, led the way
in Community Lending Program funding in one local community.
Mercer County State Bank used a $600,000 CLP loan to
help the Stoneboro Fire Department replace an existing
fire company building in 2003. The loan enabled the
fire department to benefit from updated facilities,
as well as add two new bays for the firefighting equipment.
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