Raleigh loan program helps downtown businesses grow

Plans include another kitchen, an additional bar and a second floor with rooftop seating. The renovation should be complete in a couple of months.

Developer and owner Greg Hatem says the expansion project might not have been possible without a little help from the city.

"It's still a tough lending environment out there. Banks are very skittish," he says. "A lot of times they can't lend."

Hatem filled the gap with $50,000 that he borrowed from the City of Raleigh.

But many businesses apparently don't know about it.

Taxpayers have put $300,000 into the loan program.

Of the four loans the city has written, one has been paid in full and payments are current on the others.

Borrowers have 10 years to pay them back at approximately 3 percent interest.

With business picking up in downtown Raleigh, Hatem says the loan program is a success story that breeds other success stories.

"It allows people to get into these spaces where, normally, they couldn't," he says. "And that's at the heart of the revitalization of downtown."