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Seeing our clients achieve key milestones is what drives our work at BCL of Texas. From startups that have expanded to multi-employee businesses to families buying their first homes, our success all comes down to you.
SportHooks was born out of a runner’s love for her sport and her growing collection of medals. Founder Marcey Futris, who has now run a full marathon in all 50 states and on 4 continents, was looking for a place to display her race medals.
When Marquita Perkins contacted Habitat for Humanity in 2007, she didn’t expect to become a homeowner. She became involved with the organization when she was helping a member of her church find a home and in the process ended up submitting an application for herself. Marquita became Wharton Habitat for Humanity’s first homeowner, and her neighbor was the second.
BCL is proud to provide business coaching for 100 long-standing local businesses through the Austin Legacy Business Relief Grant program, supporting art and music venues, restaurants, bars, and theatres that have been in Austin for 20 or more years.
Ruth and Arnold Guerra were born and raised in Gonzales, Texas, where they have opened hotels, restaurants, and built homes to meet their community’s needs. “We started with nothing,” Ruth said. Now, they have built over 100 homes in their community of 7,000 people.
I visited the Guerras and we drove around the town, as Ruth pointed out both homes she and her husband had worked on, as well as other neighborhoods of older homes in states of disrepair. Gonzales has not had new home construction in a long time. “Big builders are not going to come into this town,” Ruth said. In a previous subdivision, a builder constructed about 5 homes and then left town, the work unfinished. We drove past a 17-home affordable subdivision of 3-bedroom homes the Guerras built in 2009.
Now, they are building Angel Oaks, a 6-home development for median income families, featuring 3-bedroom ranch-style homes with yards. A longtime customer of BCL, having worked with us in the past for an SBA 504 loan, the Guerra family is now working with BCL’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Texas Community Builders for our new pre-development loan product.
The demand for median-priced new housing in Gonzales is apparent, as five of the Angel Oaks homes have already been purchased, just as groundbreaking has barely begun. Most of the buyers are people of color, and all are first-time homeowners. “People are getting out of renting and into their first homes,” Ruth said.
And as with their hotels, their construction business is a family venture. They’ve taught their two daughters skills in construction, management, and project administration. “In the big city, you get a job and you learn one thing,” Ruth said. She said her daughters are now prepared with a wide range of skills to take on all kinds of jobs.
“I’m really glad that Texas Community Builders is investing in small developers,” Ruth said. “I appreciate that they saw that we have projects that will benefit individuals that probably never would have been able to buy a home. Without Texas Community Builders, we would not have been able to do this project.”
With help from BCL of Texas, Balinder Singh and his partners used the SBA 504 Loan program to purchase a historic building at the corner of 15th and Lavaca in downtown Austin for their new location. Word immediately spread of the one-of-a-kind dining experience and their mouth-watering Indian cuisine, and since then the profitable restaurateurs have opened a chain of quick service restaurants in the area and have created dozens of jobs in central Texas.
Many of you know that BCL has a new Dallas office - but what you may not know is that one of our BCL customers, a florist, is now in the old BCL space! Martha Banda of Event Stems approached BCL because she was looking for a bigger and more permanent space for her business to grow.
Adrian Paredes, owner of the Austin-based Tamale Addiction, was helped with two loans from the BCL Business Growth Fund. From pork pastor with pineapple and onions to vegan nopalitos and sweet guava tamales, Paredes has been able to learn from his customers and successfully diversify his product to meet new market trends.
After Richard Starr was laid off from his job at American Airlines, he and his wife Theresa were determined to become entrepreneurs with their own business.
Suite 500 Austin, TX 78701 P: 512.912.9884 F: 346.301.5752 NMLS #1114924
Suite 1220 Dallas, TX 75208 P: 214.688.7456 F: 346.301.5752 NMLS #1114924
Suite 2 San Marcos, TX 78666 P: 512.383.0027 NMLS #1114924