$1.34M LOAN WILL HELP CAMDEN NOT-FOR-PROFIT BUILD JOB-TRAINING CENTER

By Andrew Kitchenman
NJBIZ
June 17, 2010
 

A Camden not-for-profit organization has closed on a $1.34 million loan that will allow it to build a job-training center.

 Respond Inc., which has provided social services for 43 years, closed on the loan with Sun National Bank, in Vineland. The loan includes $335,000 from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. 

The loan will be used to complete the financing for the 20,000-square-foot New Worker Job Development Center, which will be dedicated to training for jobs in culinary arts and automobile repair.

 The financing for the center also includes a $1 million grant from the Economic Recovery Board for Camden and a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, according to EDA officials. 

The authority portion of the loan, completed under the Statewide Loan Pool for Business program, was made at a fixed interest rate of 3 percent for five years. Sun National had approved a bridge loan for the construction, which will renovate a facility on North Eighth Avenue.

A ribbon-cutting was held in April 2009 for the facility, which includes state-of-the-art classrooms for up to 90 preschoolers. Local labor was used on the project.