The Dispatch wrote Ann Fisher commentary: Queen Bee in clover, thanks to lender
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
BY ANN FISHER
Jean Perry knows what makes a mom-and-pop eatery tick. She pointed to the parking lot across S. 4th Street from the Queen Bee, a Downtown casual-dining institution since 1949 that Perry and her husband took over in January 2007. “If that lot is full, I’m usually busy.”
When it’s not, when times are slow, Perry said, she is especially grateful for her relationship with the Economic and Community Development Institute.
Through December, the nonprofit group that was started in 2004 has channeled local, state, federal and private dollars to nontraditional borrowers for 156 business startups and 125 expansions. Fifty percent were immigrant-owned, and 83 percent were minority-owned.
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