Worcester Business Journal

4 Worcester Business Journal | January 23, 2017 | wbjournal.com chamber benefits from having a larger pool of potential loan applicants. "Worcester is a big city … and we are the only Community Development Financial Institution in all of Worcester County," Nascimento said. "There is a big opportunity for us." Murray said this type of financing is essential to his chamber's "Recruit. Retain. Incubate." mantra, and it made more sense to join Nascrimento's already established corporation, since the two chambers already had a history of working together. "Why reinvent the wheel?" Murray said. "Collaboration is key, and this is a way for us to offer essential financial services to our members." The development corporation's agree- ment to make loans of up to $50,000 to companies that have been turned away by banks and credit unions is essential in Worcester, where minority- and immigrant-owned businesses often don't have the financial track record for traditional lending, Murray said. "Access to capital is critical to any successful business launch," Murray said. $2 million to loan The development cor- poration expects to close its first loan to a Worcester business in late January, said Nascimento. The corporation did the bulk of its lending in the 1990s with a $1-mil- lion fund provided by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. After Nascimento joined the chamber, the U.S. Small Business Administration provided $500,000 for additional loans; and the development corpo- ration expects to announce the availabili- ty of another loan start- ing in February to bring its total capi- talization to more than $2 million. The expansion into South Worcester County will grow the organization's impact, he said, after being used by small firms like restaurants, bakeries and breweries in places like Fitchburg. The Worcester chamber "has those relationships already with businesses in South Worcester County, and they are committed to seeing them work," Nascimento said. C E N T R A L M AS S I N B R I E F Worcester chamber using North County financing for startups N eeding a way to get financing for Greater Worcester's start- ups and non-traditional bor- rowers, Timothy Murray at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce dialed up one of his old con- tacts from when he was lieutenant gov- ernor, who just happened to be a little north of him in the county. Murray reached out to Roy Nascimento – who former Lt. Gov. Murray knew when Nascrimento was the CEO of the New Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce and had since become the head of North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce. Since he took over the North County chamber two years ago, Nascimento made it a priority to fully capitalize its North Central Massachusetts Development Corp., which has loaned out $4.3 million to small businesses in North County since 1996, usually in amounts of $50,000 to $150,000 to start- ups and other companies that had a hard time getting financing from tradi- tional lending institutions. Immigrants & incubation The partnership between Nascimento's and Murray's chambers enables the development corporation to make loans of $50,000 in Worcester and throughout the 35 communities in South County, giving the Worcester chamber and its affiliates a useful tool for its members while the North County V E R B A T I M The Keurig for skate sharpening "With a skate-sharp problem, you have to get in your car, drive somewhere, get your skates sharpened and wait 20-30 minutes at a time." Russ Layton, founder of Sparx Hockey, Inc. in Acton, who developed an automatic machine to sharpen figure and hockey skates and has already landed NHL partnerships Airbnb tax "I'm not interested in raising taxes. I am interested in level playing fields. At this point in time on this particular issue, those two things seem to be in conflict." Gov. Charlie Baker, on his plan to tax short-term rentals offered through online portals like Airbnb Stressed bacteria "Our focus is on the basic science, to fill a knowledge gap and create a foundation for future advances in the field." Scarlet Shell, WPI assistant professor of biology and biotechnology, on her $1.1-million National Science Foundation grant to study how bacteria survives in stressed conditions W BY BRAD KANE Worcester Business Journal Editor Roy Nascimento (left) traveled south to Timothy Murray's CEO office at 440 Main St. in Worcester to sign the agreement for the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce to use North County financing for small businesses. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y

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