Glen and Jo Ann Hawkins opened Rock Cave IGA in Rock Cave, WV 20 years ago. With the nearest grocery store being 12 winding miles away, their store is a critical community asset, providing fresh meat and produce and sourcing it locally whenever possible. They do more than just sell food though: they recently donated indoor and outdoor space for a multi-county Farmers’ Market, a joint venture with the New Appalachian Farm and Research Center . With a long history of similar generosity to local schools and events, Rock Cave IGA, which employs 26 people, has rightly become known as the “center of the community.”
Now NCIF is helping the company set an environmental example. Using NCIF funding and a WV Manufacturing Extension Partnership energy audit for guidance, the store has been retrofitted to decrease energy consumption by 25% and lower its operating costs. Joe Brouse, NCIF Business Lender said, “Rock Cave IGA benefits from both environmental and financial performance perspectives. In other words, this is a true triple bottom line project.” Additionally, NCIF helped the company successfully obtain a 25% cost share grant from the USDA Rural Energy for America Program.
“The loan from NCIF for the energy efficiency improvements has enabled Rock Cave IGA to better serve our customers,” said Glen Hawkins, co-owner. “Frozen and produce sales have steadily increased since the new cases were installed, plus the quality of produce is better.”
NCIF provided short term capital to the Citizens Conservation Corps of West Virginia, a nonprofit community development organization with 149 employees including 111 full time, to cover operating costs until it receives a large grant from the West Virginia Department of Highways. The CCC is responsible for a variety of resource and energy efficiency projects including training employees to weatherize low-income family homes in Appalachia.
In North Carolina, NCIF has partnered with two financial institutions to support environmental businesses. With First Citizens' Bank, NCIF is supporting expansion and new hiring at Altamont Environmental in Asheville, NC. Altamont is an environmental consulting firm whose engineers, geologists, and hydrogeologists specialize in environmental remediation and restoration. Currently the company has 20 employees and expects to create 2 additional positions in 2010 and 2 more in 2011.
NCIF worked with Self-Help to provide capital to New Life Plastics of Burlington, NC, a post-industrial plastics recycler serving the Southeast. Anna Tefft, NCIF's Senior Business Lender, stated: "These two financings are good examples of how NCIF works to increase funding for green sectors. By structuring our loans to be subordinate, we can help banks and community lenders finance projects that would otherwise be hard to do alone.”
NCIF provided capital to another Asheville, NC company, Sanesco International. Founded in 2004, Sanesco is an 18-person, research-driven nutritional herbal supplement company that has developed a proprietary nutraceutical system used to treat a variety of illnesses, including but not limited to mood disorders, sleep disorders, and metabolic disorders. NCIF funded the company's purchase of a Tandem Mass Spectrometer that will help Sanesco bring key testing protocols in-house and reduce operating expenses. This investment in technology will help the company grow and hire an expected 7 more full-time employees and 2 part-time employees over the next two years.
NCIF Partners to Offer New Markets Tax Credit Products
In 2008, NCIF established a formal working partnership with CEI Capital Management, LLC to provide access to New Markets Tax Credit-based loan funds in our four state service area. This partnership represents a unique opportunity to accelerate the development and implementation of triple bottom line projects in rural Appalachia and the Southeast. Read more>
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