Ocean City Business To Receive Loan From MCE’s Casino Funds

MCE of Salisbury has announced that its first loan to assist small and minority businesses from its casino grant funding has been approved for Nurse Professionals Home Care & Staffing, LLC owned by Anita Logsdon Battista, RN of Ocean City. The loan will assist the firm to implement a sizable contract that it landed recently and allow it to place additional allied health and nursing professionals in full-time and part-time jobs in Delaware and Maryland health facilities. It provides nursing and allied health staffing in southern Delaware, Eastern Shore Maryland and the Baltimore area. Anita is recruiting health professional now and can be reached at 443-664-6915 or visit her website at www.nurseprofessionalhomecare.com.

MCE also approved its first loan from the fund to a business in the Baltimore target area to a convenience store owner who is upgrading his facility and expanding his stock.

MCE was awarded $1 million from revenues generated by the state’s three casinos on April 17, 2013 when the Board of Public Works approved the recommendation from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED). MCE is to use the funding to provide loans to Small Businesses, Minority and Women-Owned Businesses located in Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Baltimore City and Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties. Priority is given to businesses located within a ten mile radius of the casinos at Ocean Downs in Berlin and Maryland Live in Arundel Mills that lay within the target area. The contract is to begin May 1, 2013.

The Maryland State legislation that authorized casinos to operate in the state included a requirement that 1.5 percent of video lottery terminal revenue generated be allocated to help Small Businesses, Minority and Women-Owned Businesses in the State. DBED set up the grant program and award the management of the funds to loan fund managers who competed for the award. MCE won a five-year contract to manage $1 million which is renewable at the end of five years.

MCE is a non-profit micro-business finance and assistance agency formed in 1998 that provides loans, education, and assistance to small businesses on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and provides loans to small businesses in the Baltimore – Annapolis area. Based in Salisbury with an office in Baltimore, the firm is certified by the US Treasury Dept. as a Community Development Financial Institution. It is also certified as an Intermediary Micro-lender for the Small Business Administration, the US Dept. of Agriculture, and the State of Maryland. It has made nearly $3.2 million in loans to small businesses on the Shore.

For more information or to inquire about a small business loan contact MCE at 410-546-1900 or email info@maylandcapital.org. To find out more about Maryland Capital’s loan programs visit their website www.marylandcapital.org.