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Colour Palette creates new "front door" to Shelbyville using SBA 504 funding
from Shelby County Bank & Indiana Statewide CDC
The entrance to Shelbyville from the north is the brightest it has been for years. The splash of color comes from the Colour Palette, a home decorating store perched on the south bank of the Blue River along SR 9 as it enters downtown Shelbyville.
Colour Palette is a new business in an old building that had been an eyesore for 15 years. Owner Ron Kelsay used financing from the U.S. Small Business 504 loan program to buy and totally refurbish a former supermarket Shelby County Bank and the Indiana Statewide Certified Development Corporation provided the 504 loan.
Congress created the SBA 504 program to help small businesses attract favorable financing terms and retain operating cash while expanding. Companies may buy real estate, buildings and equipment with SBA 504 financing.
The Indiana Statewide CDC works with banks around Indiana to issue SBA 504 loans. Jean Wojtowicz, executive director of the Indiana Statewide CDC, says, "SBA 504 loans work because borrowing companies can put as little as 10 percent down and can receive a low, fixed interest rate for as long as 20 years. The SBA guarantees bonds that are sold to finance a portion of the loan so we can offer loan rates that are more favorable than conventional financing."
Wojtowicz adds, "This was a situation in which an SBA program came to the rescue of a city and company by helping finance a project that created jobs. Beautifying a key part of town was an important side benefit."
Colour Palette owner Kelsay says, "The city of Shelbyville had long wanted to do something with this area. This is a gateway to the city, and yet it was marred by a large, vacant building. Now, it’s a nice facility that really looks good."
City leaders are happy that Colour Palette took over the empty store, which had been a Safeway Supermarket. Dan Theobald, executive director of the Shelby County Development Corporation, says, "The building looks great. It doesn't look the same at all." He says several other companies in the area are also sprucing up their appearance.
Colour Palette will celebrate its third anniversary in February. The company started with seven employees and has built to its current staff of ten. Color Palette is a retailer of paint, flooring, window treatments and wall coverings.
Larry Lux of Shelby County Bank has used SBA 504 financing several times to help entrepreneurs in Shelbyville.
"The 504 is a great program and we always receive outstanding service of the Indiana Statewide CDC," says Lux.
"Shelby County Bank is always looking for programs that will assist businesses in growing the Shelby County economy and in creating jobs. The 504 loan program is one of the best business financing tools available, and we've put it to work many times in Shelby County."
Lux adds that flexibility is one of the programs strengths. Funding was arranged over time so that a former gas station on a corner of the Colour Palette site could be cleaned up to receive an EPA permit, a necessary condition before the sale could take place. Colour Palette leased the former grocery store building on the site until a few months ago and then completed the purchase when environmental remediation was complete in the adjacent area.
In 25 years, the Indiana Statewide CDC has helped create or save more than 28,000 jobs in Indiana with SBA 504 loans. A recent national study of the program said borrowing companies return $94 in tax revenue for every $1 of SBA 504 funding they receive.
The Indiana Statewide CDC is the leading provider of SBA 504 loans to small businesses in Indiana. Its loan volume annually places it among the top 10 percent of 504 lenders in the U.S.
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