LYNN — One year after Eastern Bank, in partnership with Mill Cities Community Investments launched its local small business loan program, the Lynn Small Business Loan Fund, the program has provided over $200,000 in loans to four different businesses in the city.
While the bank provides low-interest loans for small businesses in Lynn, its partners, the North Shore Latino Business Association and Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce provide technical assistance to businesses in need. The City of Lynn, Lynn’s Economic Development and Industrial Corporation, Essex County Community Foundation, Mill Cities Community Investments, and Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation, all collaborated on the fund with technical assistance providers and local financial institutions.
Local organizations like North Shore Latino Business Association, Creative Collective, the Greater Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce, Salem Enterprise Center, Lynn Business Partnership, Latino Support Network, ECCO, Massachusetts Small Business Development Center, North Shore Community Development Coalition, Beyond Walls, and E for All Lynn also provide technical assistance to local loan recipients.
Eastern Bank Senior Vice President Dan Field, who has been involved with the Fund since its inception in 2021, said that the program, which has clones in various gateway cities throughout the state, aims to help small businesses in developing municipalities. He said that through combining the loans with assistance from local organizations and bank funding, the program serves as an initial push to new entrepreneurs.
“The purpose was to sort of bring together banks, as well as nonprofit technical assistance to the table for a lot of these business owners. So it was sort of a big collaboration between a number of organizations that help businesses succeed, through technical assistance, as well as money from the banks, and support from the community,” Field said. “The combination of technical assistance and the funding, we feel, is a good sort of one-two punch to help these businesses grow.”
Other partners in the Lynn Loan program include: Rockland Trust, Berkshire Bank, St. Jean’s Credit Union, North Shore Bank, Mass Growth Capital Corporation, and Boston Private. Additionally, the Essex County Community Foundation provides a 10 percent loan-loss reserve to the fund and funds the operational costs of the local community development financial institution.
Glynn Lloyd is the CEO of Mill Cities Community Investments, one of the key players in the Lynn Small Business Loan Fund. He said that the program partnered with the City of Lynn to boost its local businesses, and contribute to the city’s long-term development goals.
“These businesses, if we can come back five or 10 years from now, and say that we really helped keep them on the map, and grow employment, and really support the culture and economic development of the cities, that’s the goal,” Lloyd said.
While the fund is open to a wide variety of small businesses, qualified business owners must invest 20% of their own capital into their business, and demonstrate that their proposed business serves as a benefit to the community. The fund will not approve applications from pyramid-based businesses, nor cannabis, adult entertainment, firearms, real estate, or stock speculation businesses.
“We want to help ensure that when the small business community, the local business community, and especially gateway cities are thriving, the local economy thrives as well, so this is one of many initiatives that the banks involved with across different gateway cities, and certainly Lynn is a special place for Eastern given our presence in the community,” said Eastern Bank’s Senior Vice President of Public Relations and Communications Andrea Goodman.
