Feds to open SBA office in Cape

Business Today

The U.S. Small Business Administration is getting larger in Missouri, and part of its expansion includes a new office in Cape Girardeau, according to Sam Jones, regional administrator for the Small Business Administration in Region VII.

The U.S. Small Business Administration was created to aid, assist, counsel and protect the interests of small businesses and help them recover from national disasters. It primarily does this by guaranteeing loans through local banks to nurture entrepreneurship. Although those loans for Southeast Missouri would still be processed at the regional field office in St. Louis, Jones said that an office in Cape Girardeau would provide an outlet to liquidate and market those loans and facilitate the auctioning off of local property.

"We're moving away from making those back-room activities, and centralizing them with a full-time local presence," Jones said. The Cape Girardeau office would be the regional hub for all such activity in Southeast Missouri.

Jones said the satellite office will be staffed full-time by volunteers from the area. He said the time of establishment for the office will not be set until a location in the city is found.