To start the Primrose School of Centerville, they put up $282,000 of their own money, took out a bank loan for $521,000 and got a $2 million loan guaranteed by the SBA.
The school serves about 200 children in preschool and after-school programs and has 34 employees.
The world has changed since 2006, especially the credit-access world for small business owners like the Cambrias.
“I’m baffled by it,” Cambria said. “I’ve dealt with an exorbitant number of banks and continue to get nowhere.”
They want to build a second Primrose school in nearby Washington Twp. and need $3 million for the project.
The SBA loan program they’re using requires them to put up 10 percent — which Cambria says they have. Forty percent would come from a loan from Dayton’s CityWide Development Corporation, guaranteed by the SBA.
The remaining 50 percent would have to be a loan from a bank or other lender and that’s where they’ve struck out so far.
A recent study by Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher’s U.S. Senate campaign showed that SBA loans in Ohio dropped 34 percent from 2006-2009, from $604 million to $400 million.
Thomas Mueller, director of the district SBA office that serves 60 Ohio counties, including Montgomery County, said there had been a downturn in the loans but that in recent months loans have gone up steadily.
“The banks have tightened up what they’re considering to be good credit,” said Mueller. “You have the regulators on the back end who are being tougher on the banks.”
Cambria said he’s frustrated because banks have been bailed out by billions of dollars from the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program yet he can’t get a loan for his company.
“They freed up all this TARP money to all these banks ... God knows what they did with the money,” Cambria said.
Michael Adelman, vice president of state government relations for the Ohio Bankers League, said it’s troubling to hear criticism of the TARP program because all but a “small handful” of banks have paid the money back and the “federal government has made money on the deal.”
As for Cambria’s case, Adelman said that without knowing specifics, “it’s difficult to make an on-the-fly assessment.”
“Certainly if a business is creditworthy, there are banks out there hungry to make that loan,” Adelman said.
Caitlin Bortolotto Krebs, business development officer for Dayton’s CityWide Development Corporation, has been working with Cambria on his expansion plans and said he and his wife appear to meet all the eligibility requirements for the SBA program they’re trying to use.
“Businesses have to be well prepared to approach their lenders with all the right documents,” she said. “They need more information than they’ve had in the past.”
Cambria’s best hope for a loan right now may be the Dayton Firefighters Federal Credit Union.
Cambria said several months ago, an acquaintance who’s a board member suggested he try the credit union and he began talking with Charlie Plassenthal, credit union CEO.
The credit union has about 4,000 members and assets of about $45 million, Plassenthal said.
Membership has expanded beyond the firefighters to include others in the community.
“This is kind of like our first venture into business lending,” said Plassenthal. He said he hoped there would be a decision soon on the loan.
While nothing’s certain, Cambria said he’s been encouraged by the welcome he’s received.
“They just wanted to find me the money,” he said.
Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey
@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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