WAILUKU - The California-based Agape Foundation has made a $1 million grant to support small-business loans and business planning courses for Lanai residents.
Lanai business owners or residents who want to start a business can apply for loans from $500 to $30,000 at an interest rate of 5 percent. The loans will be distributed from a revolving fund, meaning that as they are repaid, the fund will be replenished and the money can be loaned out again. To qualify, loan recipients must have lived on Lanai for at least six months.
"If they have cash-flow issues, or they need to do work on their buildings around the square, if there's termite damage or whatever, this is meant to help them," said Susie Thieman, chief executive officer of Maui Economic Opportunity Business Development Corp., which is administering the grant.
"People who've been wanting to start a business, but are not able to because they don't have money to pay for inventory or equipment - this will help them get started," she said.
Residents interested in applying for the program can meet with Loan Fund Manager Delia Wilson from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays at the University of Hawaii Maui College building in Lanai City.
The nonprofit organization Lanaians for Sensible Growth worked with Agape to obtain the grant and partnered with MEO to run the program.
LSG President Donovan Kealoha said his organization was approached by one of the principals of the Agape Foundation, a part-time Lanai resident who wants to remain anonymous. The person wanted to discuss ideas for how the foundation could help Lanai, especially with the struggling economy.
"A mission of LSG is to promote the overall well-being of our island and community, and one prong of that is economic well-being," Kealoha said.
The island's largest employers, Castle & Cooke Resorts and the Four Seasons, which operates the Manele Bay Hotel and the Lodge at Koele, have laid off or furloughed about 20 percent of their combined work force in the last 18 months, cutting hours for the employees who remain. Between 300 and 500 people are estimated to have moved off Lanai to find work - around 10 percent of the population.
But even after "tossing around" ideas with Agape officials and settling on a plan to establish a business loan fund, Kealoha was taken aback when the foundation came forward with a grant of $1 million.
"They really stepped up to the plate with that amount of money," he said.
LSG then looked for a partner organization to administer the program.
"That's where MEO fit in perfectly," he said.
Thieman said her organization works with the "unbankable," taking on clients with bad credit who might not qualify for a traditional loan and helping them rebuild and improve their credit.
MEO Business Development Corp. has made more than 600 loans in Maui County with a total value of more than $3 million; its business planning courses have more than 1,350 graduates.
The organization's Lanai program also offers MEO's popular Core Four Business Planning Course, with the first series of classes starting last month with 12 students. Thieman said the course is not required to qualify for a loan, but said staffers might steer applicants toward enrolling if they get the sense the person needs more help getting his or her business in order.
There are no deadlines to
apply for a loan; the applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Around 15 people have already requested applications, and Thieman said she expected the first loans would be released by the end of the month.
"It can be in their hands within a week," she said.
She said she was seeing interest from a wide variety of businesses. One man who took an application owns a business and has two sons.
"The dad's wanted them to join the business for a long time but has never been able to buy a second truck," she said. "This is an opportunity for them to pursue that idea."
Thieman said the program could provide relief badly needed in Lanai's tough economy.
"If they're struggling, don't struggle," she said. "Come talk to us."
"This isn't the end-all, be-all for everything happening on Lanai," Kealoha said. "But it's one step."
* Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com.
