FROED offers help to business at all levels

Most often it’s baby steps.
They are helping the City of Fall River make major strides in
economic development.
Take Andre Coelho, for example.
Coelho was building an addition to his house last winter. As one
might expect, the project precipitated several trips to floor covering
“mega-stores.” For Coelho, those trips were something less than
enjoyable, though they did inspire him to start his own business. The
more Coelho visited those “mega-stores,” the more frustrated he became.
Coelho wasn’t getting the customer service he wanted – or felt he
deserved.
“I was literally standing around begging for someone to help me,”
said Coelho. “It was a lot of effort to get help. That’s not the way it
should be.”
With 25 years experience in the flooring industry, Coelho decided
that once his addition was complete, he would go into business for
himself. With the help of the Fall River Office of Economic Development
(FROED), he has.
Coelho obtained a $40,000 low-interest loan from FROED and financing
from Fall River Five Cents Savings Bank. His business, Wholesale
Flooring, is a full-service floor covering supplier featuring carpeting,
ceramic tiles, laminate floors and wood flooring. It employs five people
on Probber Lane in Fall River. With few exceptions, it is these small
businesses which FROED has a hand in launching, in contrast to the
recent announcement by Main Street Textiles, which will be adding
hundreds of jobs over the next few years.
Coelho said securing the FROED loan was critical to him getting his
business off the ground.
“I was able to go out and purchase my inventory,” said Coelho. “The
set up was expensive.”
Kenneth Fiola, Jr., FROED’s executive vice president, sees Wholesale
Flooring as a perfect example of FROED’s strategy of economic
development.
FROED has financed more than 250 businesses, helping to create and
retain thousands of jobs. In January 1996, Fall River Mayor Edward M.
Lambert, Jr. launched JOBSFIRST, a new job creation initiative that has
allowed FROED to relax certain loan guidelines and increase awareness of
the office through direct mailings.
Between 1996 and 1997, FROED has approved $3.3 million in loans to 54
Fall River businesses, as a result leveraging $8.3 million in private
investment. Through that period, according to FROED, nearly 400 jobs
were created and more than 1,000 were retained.
“We’re trying to attack economic development at all levels,” Fiola
said. “It is our philosophy to give the same amount of time and
attention to small companies, as well as the larger ones.”
Fiola said the majority of the city’s economic growth comes from its
existing businesses. And those businesses are often turning to FROED,
which has been in business for 20 years. Companies, said Fiola, now come
looking to FROED for help.