A collector of hot sauce, State Treasurer Steve Grossman picks out a Mexican habanero hot sauce on storeowner Victor Gallego’s recommendation.
State Treasurer Steve Grossman met directly with an couple that owns a business in East Boston that directly benefits from Grossman’s Small Business Banking Partnership program.
On Tuesday Grossman toured El Valle De La Sultana Market on Bennington Street in East Boston. Owners Victor Gallego and Martha Perdomo received a $172,500 loan through East Boston Savings Bank as part of the Small Business Banking Partnership and Grossman was on hand to see how the EBSB loan helped enhance their business.
Gallego and Perdomo had operated the business since 2006 under a rental agreement, but the loan they received through the state’s partnership with EBSB allowed them to purchase the property in November of last year. The couple owns two other markets of the same name–one in Somerville and one in Everett. The East Boston location is a 4,400 square-foot commercial facility that employs five people and sells grocery items and operates as a full-scale butcher shop.
“All across the Commonwealth we are seeing successful businesses like El Valle De La Sultana Market put their entrepreneurial spirit to work through the Small Business Banking Partnership,” said Treasurer Grossman. “By directing additional deposits into Massachusetts community banks and encouraging them to lend to Massachusetts small businesses, the Partnership puts the reserve resources of the Treasury to their optimal use, creating jobs, opportunity, and prosperity throughout the Commonwealth.”
The Small Business Banking Partnership moves Treasury cash reserve funds typically held by large national and international financial institutions and deposits them in amounts of up to $10 million in Massachusetts’s banks. In exchange for the infusion of new deposits, the banks sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signaling their intent to enhance their loan portfolios to small credit-worthy Massachusetts businesses.
“East Boston Savings Bank is committed to helping small businesses like El Valle De La Sultana Market succeed,” said EBSB Chairman and CEO Richard Gavegnano. “Our participation in the Treasury’s Small Business Banking Partnership has been a positive experience. By providing funding to smaller businesses we hope to help create jobs which helps stimulate the local economy. The Bank is proud to have been able to assist over 15 small business owners with financing to help their business succeed in our communities.”
All deposits that the Treasury makes in these community banks are protected through either insurance or collateral, and the interest rate on the money is comparable to what the Commonwealth receives at out-of-state financial institutions.
“Originally East Boston Savings Bank started with only 80 percent of $5 million and when I called Richard Gavegnano to see how the program was going he told me they would take the rest of the money,” said Grossman. “I told him the bank could take the other 20 percent plus another $5 million because we had increased the amount we were depositing in community banks.”