By Carly Horton
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Local financial lenders are stepping up to the plate to encourage growth and development of small businesses in Alaska.

With help from the U.S. Small Business Administration's Alaska District Office, two lenders - Alaska Growth Capital and Alaska Pacific Bank - have been named Alaska SBA Lender of the Year and Community-Based Lender of the Year, respectively.

“In the case of both of these lenders, it shows they're doing even more deals than national-based institutions,” said Sam Dickey, deputy district director for the Alaska SBA office.

Alaska Growth Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corp., provides government guarantee loans to regional air carriers, water transportation companies, restaurants and assisted care facilities, to name just a few. “You name it, we do it,” said senior loan officer John Delano.

The company is based in Anchorage, has 11 employees, and serves customers statewide.

Delano said many banks don't take advantage of the government guarantee program, “but because they carry a 75 (percent) to 90 percent guarantee there's less risk to us. What we do is take the guarantees and sell them in a secondary market, but we continue to service the loan part of the contract for the customer.”

Alaska Growth Capital has been the top SBA lender in the state for the second consecutive year for providing needed capital to Alaskan small businesses. Delano credits the company's ability to approve loans in-house with getting more business loans approved on time.

The government guarantee program “is very successful nationwide,” Delano said. “And the program is absolutely good for Alaska. Volumes are down nationwide, but we're still in pretty good shape up here. The BP/ConocoPhillips (gas line) announcement has got everyone excited. Alaskans are anxious to do something with a business they already have or start up a new one.”

Alaska Growth Capital received recognition based on loan volume of any lender (bank or non-bank) headquartered anywhere in the U.S., Dickey said. Last year the firm approved 37 SBA loans.

Alaska Pacific Bank, formerly Alaska Federal Savings and Loan, is headquartered in Juneau, with about 70 employees serving the small business market in Southeast Alaska.

“The beauty of the SBA is that it allows us to do more types of loans than we'd normally be able to do,” said Leslie Dahl, senior vice president and chief lending officer. “We're considered a community bank; that's important to us.”

Dahl said the bank works in partnership with the SBA and the Juneau Small Business Development Center. She credits both entities for creating outreach programs to educate consumers. “These are tough economic times, and the SBA wants business owners to know what's available to them.”

This is the first year the bank has received recognition as the community-based lender of the year. Dickey said the recognition was based on the number of SBA guarantee loans for any lender (bank or non-bank) headquartered in Alaska. “We're really honored,” Dahl said. “It just helps our community.”

For information, visit www.sba.gov/localresources/district/ak/index.html.