SYRACUSE, N.Y. — CenterState CEO and the Greater Syracuse Business Development Corporation (GSBDC) on Thursday announced a new strategic partnership to scale GSBDC’s lending resources and better serve the region’s small businesses.
CenterState CEO is an economic development and chamber of commerce organization, while the GSBDC — a certified development company by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) — was formed in 1964.
Together, CenterState CEO and GSBDC will leverage aligned investments, market opportunities, and support services, providing the region’s small-business community with “more streamlined resources,” per the announcement. The two organizations are already working with each other to explore ways to make capital more accessible for small businesses, they said.
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“As we prepare the community for unprecedented growth, we recognize the need to significantly enhance how we’re directly supporting all our region’s small businesses,” Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState CEO, said in the announcement. “As longtime partners with a shared vision, we look forward to working with GSBDC to make it easier for small businesses to access the capital they need to capture the opportunities of a growing community.”
Under the new agreement, GSBDC staff will operate from CenterState CEO’s office in downtown Syracuse. CenterState CEO will provide GSBDC with the staffing and administrative support “necessary to manage and expand” GSBDC operations and lending resources. The partnership will result in a “more uniform, expanded, and easy-to-access set of small business tools,” CenterState CEO said.
“With the support and resources afforded us under this partnership, GSBDC is most excited about the prospects of being able to provide a significantly more robust mission-based small business lending program to our community,” Bob Ellis, executive director of GSBDC, said. “We feel this move may be the most significant advancement in our ability to meet our client’s needs since GSBDC’s inception. We are proud to be able to call CenterState CEO our strategic partner.”
A majority of the GSBDC’s work is through the SBA 504 Program, which provides long-term, fixed rate financing of up to $5 million for property or equipment used to operate a business. The GSBDC also maintains various revolving-loan funds. These services have helped to create and retain thousands of jobs in Central New York and supported economic-development opportunities as well, CenterState CEO said.
