Wide array of businesses have opened with help of loan program

The Porch is among the businesses that have benefited from the city of Winston-Salem's loan program.

The Winston-Salem City Council's approval of a $100,000 loan to The Chronicle newspaper earlier this week has prompted curiosity about the city's small-business loan program.

The city has approved $6.1 million to 142 businesses over the past 28 years, according to information provided by Assistant City Manager Derwick Paige. Of those, 21 businesses withdrew, two are under legal action and two are pending. Alarming perhaps, only 48 remain open, while 69 are closed. The city estimates that about 491 jobs were created through the loans, which equates to about $12,398 per job.

Some businesses that are familiar to YES! Weekly readers are on the list.

The Porch Kitchen & Cantina, owned by Claire Calvin, received a loan for $60,000 in fiscal year 2013-2014. Roller Family Beer Works, owned by Eric Swaim and Eric Weyer — like the Porch located in the new West End Millworks — received a loan for $35,000 the previous year. A third tenant of the complex, West End Mill Works, owned by Suzy McCalley and Emily Stewart, received a loan for $55,000.

Small Batch Beer Co., another craft beer maker, also received a $50,000 loan in FY 2012-2013.

Camino Bakery, owned by Cary Clifford, received a $24,845 loan in FY 2011-2012 and currently owes $24,384.

The city loaned Ziggy's (partially owned by YES! Weekly publisher Charles Womack) $50,000 in FY 2010-2011. The borrower currently owes $49,923.

FTE jobs created by recent loan recipients:

25th Street Grill — 3
Fourth Street Kabobs — 5
S2dio Supplies — 1
NuEvo Hair Studio — 4
The Porch Kitchen & Cantina — 6
Roller Family Beer Works — 8
The Breathing Room — 5
Toddler Tech — 10
Small Batch Beer Co. — 6
Cin Cin Restaurant — 10
Camino Bakery — 8
Kelly's Learning Center — 10
Ogburn Station Store — 8
Ziggy's — 12

Winston-Salem City Council Insider

Tonight's meeting of the Winston-Salem City Council begins at 7 p.m. If you're worried about the roads and don't want go to City Hall to see the action unfold in person, watch it via streaming video here.

Typically, the best stuff is found in the consent agenda, which is approved without discussion unless a member of council pulls the item for discussion. That's certainly the case with a request from the Winston-Salem Chronicle for a $100,000 loan to finance the hiring of three new sales associates in support of the newspaper's "For Seniors Only!" publication.

The item was recommended by the finance committee last week without no discussion. Back story here.

Documents here, here and here.

Not everyone in the community is on board.

Chad Nance, editor of Camel City Dispatch (a friend and occasional partner of YES! Weekly) writes in a letter to the mayor and members of council:

"There are obvious ethical questions of having the very government that journalists are Constitutionally charged to watch having their hands on the chain. The fact that The Chronicle is beholden to the city of Winston-Salem will remove any credibility they ever had as an honest broker of news and information. It raises the question about someone with a media platform like [publisher] Mr. [Ernie] Pitt — a platform that would have the ability to damage political careers with a swipe of the pen — asking those very politicians for a handout."

UPDATE: City council voted unanimously to approve the loan to The Chronicle.

The council also voted in a split decision to approve an additional $400,000 loan for the Ogburn Station Shopping Center through the Revitalizing Urban Commercial Areas program even though previous loans have run into trouble related to a dispute between shopping center owner Danny Kim and tenant Bernetta Oakes.