Local Business

Fri, 01/24/2014 - 9:00am

SUSAN JOHNS, Staff Reporter

CEI President Ron Phillips. File photo

Financial power player JPMorgan Chase has pegged Coastal Enterprises in Wiscasset to be part of a new lending team for small businesses.

“The really exciting part of this is the ability to work collaboratively on a national level,” Coastal Enterprises spokeswoman Elizabeth Rogers said in a telephone interview January 23.

It’s also the second time in less than two months that a big name in finance has partnered with the local non-profit, also known as CEI. New York investment firm Goldman Sachs announced in late November that it would loan CEI $5.25 million to re-lend to businesses. The firm is also giving CEI a $250,000 grant to help run that program.

For being in on the new project announced January 23, CEI will get $1.1 million from JPMorgan Chase’s charitable arm, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Rogers said. The money is part of a $7 million grant the foundation is making to CEI and three other lenders: Community Reinvestment Fund in Minnesota; National Development Council in New York and the Calvert Foundation in Maryland.

CEI’s share will go to loans to small businesses that create jobs in Maine and in rural communities near urban areas including Detroit, Milwaukee, Denver, Chicago, Seattle, Buffalo and New York City, according to Rogers and a press release.

“CEI’s expertise in rural economic development will expand the Collaborative’s efforts in communities surrounding...targeted urban areas,” the release states.

The partnership fits with CEI’s goal to lend and invest $128 million over five years.

“As a leading rural finance entity in Maine and the Northeast, CEI is honored to support the partnership through our expertise in financing small businesses outside of urban economic centers,” CEI President Ron Phillips states in the release.

Related:

CEI lends businesses $5 million

Coastal Enterprises lands federal loan