LDC secures extra loan proceeds

A small business financing program run by the city of Charleston has received a $650,000 injection at a time when loan requests are on the rise.

The nonprofit Local Development Corporation said that it has received the funds from the Communities at Work Fund, a $200 million program launched last year by the Calvert Foundation and Citi. The money is structured as a loan to the agency, said Sharon Brennan, LDC's executive director.

"Since we've been funding many, many loans, we needed it desperately," Brennan said.

Created in 1979, LDC targets small, underserved businesses throughout the Charleston region. It administers several lending programs that provide up to $75,000.

Qualified borrowers must have been turned away by conventional financiers. Requests for funding are up significantly since the recession-induced credit crunch, Brennan said.

"Today it's not just the startups who are coming to us," she said.

She said the LDC also expects the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide it with an additional $750,000.