Bank, Harbor-Watts Group Team Up
The Los Angeles Harbor-Watts Economic Development Corp. has been selected to market and underwrite loans for the Los Angeles Community Development Bank.
The organization, committed to revitalizing an area that stretches from Watts Towers to the Los Angeles Harbor, will identify businesses seeking loans between $25,001 and $500,000 and determine whether they meet the bank’s criteria.
Development Corp. Chairman John Papadakis said the relationship with the bank will help bring more financial assistance to Watts businesses. The loan assistance will go to expand existing businesses, transfer businesses from retirees to new owners and reclaim “brownfields,” properties with environmental contamination.
The federally funded bank makes loans to businesses rejected by conventional lenders.
Most loans must go to businesses in the federally designated empowerment zone, which includes Watts. Millions in loan dollars are also available to businesses in other low- and moderate-income census tracts. However, the bank must locate a new source of administrative funds to begin lending that money.
The bank’s intermediaries help identify borrowers and market and underwrite loans below $500,000. Others are Barrio Planners Inc., the Asian Pacific Revolving Loan Fund of L.A., FAME Renaissance, the Valley Economic Development Center, J.R. Bruno & Associates, Summit Group and Business Resource Group.
