FedEx officials said the center’s location gives it access to two major highways and to a major FedEx hub in Florence, Ky.
The city spent $1.3 million from its tax increment financing fund to extend Henkle Drive to the new center, according to The Middletown Journal, our sister newspaper.
“FedEx is making a tremendous investment in the city and I expect the economic impact to be enormous,” Sara Arseneau, director of the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce, told newspaper.
Seaside dining at Red Lobster
Officials at Red Lobster announced last week they have completed the remodeling of four of its Dayton-area restaurants “in a style inspired by the New England coast that is designed to provide an experience of dining by the seaside.” It would take a lot of pinot gris to make me think I’m dining by the seaside while in Dayton, Ohio, but hey, let’s give credit for effort.
The newly renovated Red Lobster exteriors feature a New England-esque stone tower, ship lanterns and Adirondack-style chairs “to encourage guest conversation and mingling outside,” according to a Red Lobster news release. The restaurants in Beavercreek, Miller Lane, Piqua and Springfield have undergone the seaside transformation, while the Red Lobster near the Dayton Mall in Miamisburg has not yet been renovated, a spokesman for the restaurant chain said. But be patient: all Red Lobsters in North America will undergo the redesign by the end of 2014.
KeyBank aids small businesses
My Dayton Daily News colleague Chelsey Levingston reports that KeyBank National Association of Cleveland was recognized as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s large lender of the year during National Small Business Week in late May. A local business leader helped explained how SBA loans benefit small business.
Ron Ferguson is president of the franchise division of WrenCare, of Middletown, a distributor of home medical equipment. WrenCare last year wanted to expand to a new product line of home ventilators, a capital intensive venture, Ferguson said.
However, the $2.5 million loan carried a lot of risk, said Steve Brooks, SBA specialist and assistant vice president of KeyBank.
“We would not have done this on a conventional basis,” Brooks said. WrenCare’s products are in 3,200 households. “It wasn’t something we felt we could liquidate.”
But as an SBA loan, the SBA backed 75 percent of the loan value. KeyBank was able to make the loan and hopes to get more future business from WrenCare.
“Our goal is to grow and become a larger regional company,” Ferguson said.
If you have something you think BizInsider should know about, send it to mfisher@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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