Group Opens L.A. Office to Boost Local Lending

A new lender is in town eager to finance small businesses that can’t get in the door of conventional banks.

The Oakland-based California Economic Development Lending Initiative opened its Los Angeles office on South Figueroa Street to increase its lending here, President George Williamson said. The statewide organization teams with banks and community lending groups to finance small businesses, many of them women- and minority-owned. The banks provide senior debt, while CEDLI provides subordinated debt, which is treated like an equity injection and adds to the borrower’s net worth.

CEDLI targets businesses with sales of up to $10 million and lends up to $400,000 in subordinated debt for business loans and up to $1 million for real estate loans.

“Our goal is to expand our activity in Southern California by about 50%,” Williamson said. The Los Angeles region “already represents more than half of CEDLI’s activity in the state. It’s a key market for us and we want to have a local presence in the market and a presence in the community.”

Heading the Southern California office is Ray Mendoza, who for the last 11 years served as executive director of CIBC World Markets, the corporate and investment banking unit of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

Working as CEDLI partners to help identify leads and package loans are: Pacific Coast Regional Corp.; the Community Financial Resource Center; TELACU; the Valley Economic Development Center; and FAME Renaissance.

For more information, call (323) 232-4520.

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Lee Romney can be reached by e-mail at lee.romney@latimes.com; Marla Dickerson is at marla.dickerson@latimes.com.