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Fuego Mundo Restaurant gets First SBA Guaranteed Loan In Georgia, following Enactment of new American Recovery Act
—Provision on Eliminated Fees Saves Borrower some $12,000—
The Fuego Mundo Restaurant became the first small business in Georgia to receive an SBA guaranteed loan under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with a 90 percent guarantee and no fees. The federal law provides $730 million to SBA and makes changes to the agency’s lending and investment programs so the agency can reach more small businesses that need help.
“We were already excited at the prospect of starting our new business concept,”said Masha Hleap-Hershkovitz, owner. “But with the benefits of this new SBA program to strengthen our business, we are even more optimistic at the prospects of success.”
Ms. Hershkovitz used a $550,000 SBA 7(a) loan from Signature Bank of Georgia to help finance her new, South American style wood-fire grill. It opened on June 5 at The Prado, a retail complex in Sandy Springs. She said the elimination of the loan fees totaled about $12,000, money she can now put back into her new venture.
“With the higher SBA guarantee, the lender risk was reduced,” added Terri Denison, SBA Georgia District Director. “The bank loan and SBA guarantee were approved in a matter of hours.”
Others who joined Denison at a special check presentation to Fuego Mundo included Burton Blackmar, Vice President of Signature Bank, and Eva Galambos, the Mayor of Sandy Springs. A native of Colombia, Hershkovitz closed on her loan from Signature Bank on April 2.
As of August 21, SBA has supported over $9 billion in small business lending, with the approval of $6.6 billion in loans since Feb. 17. Since the signing of the American Recovery Act, weekly loan dollar volume has risen more than 50 percent in the 7(a) and 504 programs, compared to the weekly average before passage of the act.
Fuego Mundo Restaurant
612 Perimeter Walk/The Prado
Atlanta, GA 30338
404/256-4330
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Agency’s 8(a) Program helps DoverStaffing Inc. Grow its Staff to over 200 Employees
—Firm has Received six 8(a) Contracts for $9.8 Million—
Like many entrepreneurs, Sanquinetta Dover paid some dues before she returned to Atlanta in 1996 to start DoverStaffing Inc., a professional placement and project management firm that has grown to over 200 employees.
After graduating from Spelman College in Atlanta with a degree in Economics, she spent six years with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in its bank liquidation division in Chicago and Midland, Texas. She later held several corporate sales positions in Chicago and spent over two years running her first small business, a wood pallet manufacturing firm in the Windy City.
Dover says she first learned about the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development program in Chicago during the operation of her first small business. Her knowledge of the program would pay large dividends after DoverStaffing was certified as an 8(a) and Small Disadvantaged Business in 2003.
Since it was certified, DoverStaffing has received six contracts through the 8(a) program for a total of $9.8 million. The first of these contracts came in 2006 when the company was named the prime contractor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cotton Division to provide administrative staff and light industrial machine operators. Another 8(a) award calls for the company to be the prime contractor for the U.S. Army Reserve’s Survivor Outreach Services (SOS) program. This contract provides support and financial counselors nationwide to families of fallen soldiers.
The company’s latest contract was an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) award for the U.S. Department of Navy’s “SeaPort-e” program. SeaPort-e is the Navy’s electronic platform for acquiring support services in 22 functional areas including Engineering, financial Management and Program Management.
“These contracts have been very important in assisting the development of our company,” says Dover. “They have allowed us to gain valuable management performance that will position us to compete further in the private and public sector.”
There are other benefits to the 8(a) program besides having the opportunity to bid on sole-source and limited competition federal contracts. The nine-year program, limited to firms owned by economically and socially disadvantaged individuals, also offers management and technical assistance as well as counseling and monitoring services by staff located in SBA district offices.
When her company joined the 8(a) program, its employment level was about 75 people, according to Dover, a native of Greenwood, S.C. Besides its headquarters staff, the company now has employees based nationwide to handle additional contracts that include work for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Looking to its graduation from 8(a) in 2012, Dover says her company is continually marketing its business to help sustain growth past its current portfolio of contracts.
Its marketing efforts recently paid off when DoverStaffing was one of one of six firms that were awarded contracts by the State of Georgia’s Department of Administrative Services to provide 1,000 temporary jobs to state agencies with federal stimulus funds.
To help with its development, Dover moved the company’s main office this year to a HUBZone located on Cleveland Avenue in Fulton County. The HUBZone program establishes preferences for federal contracts to small businesses located in “historically underutilized business zones.”
Dover says the positive influence of her parents, both educators, helped her reach many of her career goals. Her father earned a PhD degree before he became superintendent of schools in Greenwood County, S.C. “Managing money and living within my means are lessons are learned from my father,” she said.
DoverStaffing received the Atlanta Business League’s “Success Against the Odds” Award in 2005 and the Regional Director’s Award from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency in 2006.
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Sanquinetta Dover, President/CEO
DoverStaffing Inc.
777 Cleveland Ave.
Atlanta, GA 30315
770/434-3040
This article and accompanying photograph do not constitute or imply endorsement by SBA of any opinions, products or services of any private individual or entity
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SBA 504 Loan financing Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) Being Constructed in Union City, Georgia
—The $2 Million, Recycling Facility will be first of its kind in Georgia—
MBA Waste Services LLC started work in early November on its new Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) at a site off Roosevelt Highway in Union City, Georgia. The facility, on an eight acre tract, will include a 41,000 square-foot industrial building, a sorting system to separate materials that are being recycled as well as a “reduction grinder” to prepare materials for other end uses.
The MRF complex, set to go operational in early 2011, will be the first permitted recovery facility for construction materials within 250 miles of Atlanta, according to Ken Mitchell, President/CEO of MBA Waste Services. “We will be able to recycle concrete, wood, metal, paper and plastic as well as carpet at the facility,” he added.
Ken, and his wife Carol, company secretary, were able to use a $2.1 million SBA 504 Development Loan to finance their new recycling facility in south Fulton County. The Mitchells were able to save over $19,000 in fees which were waived under provisions of the Small Business Jobs Act which recently became law.
The Mitchells said another advantage of their 504 loan were the smaller yearly repayments since these are spread over a pay-back schedule of 20 years.
The 504 Loan, which will help create 25 new jobs over the next 12 months, is a combination of $1.1 million in funds from the Bank of North Georgia and another $949,000 provided by the Economic Development Corporation, a SBA Certified Development Company (CDC) in Gainesville. About 10 percent of the 504 package came from the borrower. The funds from the CDC are generated from SBA guaranteed debentures sold on the open market.
A major reduction in dumping fees is another upside to the Mitchell’s new recycling facility. “We expect to save over $30,000 a month by not having to pay to dump waste materials in city landfills as well as the recovery income we will generate from our recycled materials.” said Ken. “We already have markets developed for our recycled materials,” he continued. “And some of these will be exports to other countries.”
The Mitchells expressed thanks to both the Mayor and the City Council in Union City for their help in getting certification from the state for their recycling site.
MBA Waste Services was started in 2007 with services that include portable toilets, roll-off dumpsters, waste water holding tanks and wash stations. It has quickly grown to one of the largest portable toilet companies in metro Atlanta. The division operates under the name of “Big John’s and uses a sophisticated GPS system to track its commercial toilets and roll-off containers.
In its new venture, MBA Waste Services will have commercial customers in metro Atlanta as well as in Augusta.
The company takes part in the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program. Through a LEED designation, the company is able to generate end-user certificates that are given to its customers as required documentation for green tax credits.
Taking an idea and running with it lies at the heart of the MBA Waste Services operation. It all started in 2007 with a phone call from the Mitchell’s son Josh, a graduate of Auburn University’s Master of Business Administration program. He told his parents about his idea for a waste management business in Atlanta and their agreement took the form of a major commitment, involving his father leaving the financial services industry in Jasper, Alabama and moving with his wife to a new career in Georgia.
Today, Josh is the operations manager for the company. Their other son, Victor, is a sophomore at Auburn, majoring in Entrepreneurship and small family business. He plans to join the company after graduation.
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Ken and Carol Mitchell, owners
MBA Waste Services LLC
P.O. Box 725
Acworth, GA 30101-0725
770/975-1133
This article and accompanying photograph do not constitute or imply endorsement by SBA of any opinions, products or services of any private individual or entity
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