SBA targets military<br> with Patriot Express loans

PROVIDENCE – The U.S. Small Business Administration today launched a new loan program tailored to the military community.
“Military activations and extensions here in Rhode Island and across America are having a profound impact on entrepreneurs in the military community,” said Mark S. Hayward, director of the SBA’s Rhode Island District Office and acting regional administrator for New England. “SBA is committed to helping America’s service men and women.”
The Patriot Express Pilot Loan is an enhanced version of the agency’s successful SBA Express program.
Eligible are veterans of the U.S. armed forces, Reserve and National Guard members, and active-duty personnel participating in the military’s Transition Assistance Program; their current spouses; and surviving spouses of military personnel who died in service or of a service-related disability.
Patriot Express loans for as much as $500,000 are available through the SBA’s nationwide network of participating lenders. They can be used for most business purposes, the SBA said, from startup to expansion to working capital to purchases of inventory, equipment or business-occupied real estate.
The loans qualify for the SBA’s maximum guarantee: up to 85 percent for loans of $150,000 or less and up to 75 percent for loans between $150,000 and $500,000. They also qualify for its lowest interest rates, usually the prime rate plus 2.25 percent to 4.74 percent, depending on the amount and term of the loan.
“We believe that Patriot Express – supported by SBA’s other services – goes directly to the needs of these American patriots who wish to start businesses, and in the process encourages job creation and economic growth,” Hayward said.
The SBA and its Office of Veterans Business Development provide outreach, assistance and support to more than 100,000 veterans and reservists per year, including disaster loans and other assistance for small businesses whose owners or other essential employees are called to active duty.
Local and online assistance with business planning, management, expansion and becoming a federal contractor also are available from SBA partners SCORE: Counselors to America’s Small Business, the R.I. Small Business Development Center, the Center for Women & Enterprise and the SBA Women’s Business Center, the agency noted.
Details of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s new Patriot Express loan initiative, including a list of participating lenders, are available at www.sba.gov/patriotexpress or by contacting Norm Deragon, the SBA’s veterans business development officer for Rhode Island, at 528-4561, ext. 4576, or normand.deragon@sba.gov.