City Chooses Small-Business Project Chief

Daniel Mejia, former representative of the U.S. Small Business Administration, has been hired as manager of the Santa Ana Business Enterprise Center. Mejia started working Monday on the new project, which the city is financing through a grant from the federal Economic Development Administration. The center, to be located on the northeast corner of Poinsettia Street and Santa Ana Boulevard, will be a 21,000-square-foot building housing 15 to 20 new small businesses in an effort designed to help new firms start up in the city.

Scheduled to open next January, the center will allow businesses to cut their overhead costs by using services provided by the center, including reception, maintenance, conference facilities, shipping and receiving. Other services such as typing, mailing and copying will be offered at reduced rates.

Mejia, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Fullerton in 1963 and a doctorate from UC Irvine in 1975, advised more than 600 businesses while a management assistance and commercial loan officer with the SBA in the 1970s.