MaineBusiness.com

November 5, 2009
Contact
Mike Finnegan, Senior Loan and Investment Officer, mfinnegan@ceimaine.org, 207-882-7552, x161
Gerard Salvo, Director of Workforce Solutions, grs@ceimaine.org, 207-882-7552, x155
Lisa G. Martin, Executive Director, Manufacturers Association of Maine, lisa@mainemfg.com, 207-854-2153, 207-329-9933 (cell)

Wiscasset, ME. Ron Phillips, President of Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), the Wiscasset-based community development and financial entity announced today that the organization will receive $765,000 in capital from the Federal Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Community Services (OCS), to invest in Maine small manufacturing enterprises in the greater Portland region. Called the Portland Regional Initiative for Manufacturing Employment Fund (PRIME), CEI will invest OCS funds, leveraged with other debt capital from partnering banks to finance job-generating small-to-medium enterprises. This funding will sustain current employment and create as many as 78 full-time, year-round jobs.
“This fund builds on CEI’s 26 years of linking investments made in promising Maine enterprises to workforce development and creating jobs for low-income people,” said Phillips. “It is consistent with CEI’s mission and its commitment to address the lack of economic opportunity for low-income residents in the most populated, diverse and industrial region of the state.”
CEI will lend this money to job-generating manufacturing businesses, one of the sectors identified under the Department of Labor’s High Growth Job Training Initiative. Mike Finnegan, CEI’s senior investment and loan officer, noted that OCS has been a traditional source of flexible capital benefiting many Maine small businesses, including several enterprises on the Portland Fish Pier, child care centers, companies like Moss Inc. in Belfast, DeLorme Publishing in Freeport, and many others. CEI is partnering with the Manufacturers Association of Maine, whose 215 members have identified both a significant need for qualified workers who can be trained on the job and a need for flexible capital to finance growth opportunities. The kick off for this partnership was announced at today’s MAME annual meeting.
“CEI and the Association have worked together for many years in providing programs and services for the manufacturing sector in Maine,” said Lisa G. Martin, MAME’s Executive Director. “Our role in this project will be to provide marketing, outreach, training options and advisory capacity.”
Other partnering organizations include Department of Health and Human Services ASPIRE Program, Bayside Neighborhood Association, Maine Department of Labor Career Center and Apprenticeship Programs, and Goodwill Industries of New England.
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