Interview: Brooke Mirenda

Brooke Mirenda

President & CEO Sunshine State Economic Development Corporation

Will demand for SBA loans increase going forward?

Yes, I believe companies will look at SBA as a source of funding their business ventures due to the allowances our borrowers have received during the pandemic. There is certainly an awareness of SBA that didn’t exist in years past due to the pandemic. With the legislation that passed at the end of the year, there are even more advantages for small-business owners, including more robust refinancing options and temporary fee relief. Certified Development Companies (CDCs) around the country and our industry as a whole are seeing record numbers of new applications.

To obtain an SBA 504 loan, you must have a CDC partner. It is a two-part loan with a lender and a CDC/ SBA where we finance fixed assets (commercial real estate, machinery, and equipment). There are many advantages of SBA 504 financing. For a 504 loan, the standard down payment is 10%. CDC’s like SEDCO have an economic goal, with one of them being job creation. When you only have to put 10% down, you can utilize that additional capital to create jobs. For conventional financing, the standard down payment is 20% to 25% and many of them balloon after so many years. With the SBA 504 loan, the rates are lower, fixed for the life of the loan and the terms are longer than conventional financing. There are very few disadvantages of going SBA.

What are your main near-term priorities?

We’re really watching our portfolio and it’s performance. In the 504 loan program, we need to be cognizant of the fact that we are lending SBA money, not ours. While we do have other lending programs, our primary focus is the SBA 504 loan. Additionally, with all the legislative changes, we envision our portfolio will continue to grow with additional program offerings like debt refinance. We are certainly geared up and prepared for growth. Growth is good, but we also want to ensure we are setting up our small businesses for success as they continue to be the driving economic force in the US economy.

For the banking sector, the pandemic highlighted the importance of having strong client relationships.

startup is ready for launch and has made a commitment to be carbon-neutral from the day it opens its doors. Not only that, it will ensure its vendors are strictly evaluated based on their ESG goals and will provide its customers with climate-focused services, such as “solar loans” in its capacity as a full-service community bank.

Mortgages Tampa Bay’s mortgage market is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, historically-low interest rates have driven demand for the already limited housing supply after an initial pause stemming from the arrival of COVID-19 to the United States and the resulting market uncertainty. By July 2020, however, the home purchase pace had accelerated by a record-breaking 24.7% compared to the month before. On the other hand, at the end of May 2020, the percentage of Tampa Bay’s

homeowners incurring delinquencies grew by 5.3%, the 10th-highest increase across the United States.

Strong demographics may push for increased mortgage demand and residential developments, however. According to the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council, the Tampa MSA ranks fifth across the nation in net migration since 2018 with a total gain of 41,800 people, equivalent to 115 people per day. This means that more people are coming to the Tampa Bay metro area than to Miami, Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach. Furthermore, the Tampa MSA’s population is projected to increase 25% over the next 20 years.

While there are concerns of a housing bubble given the accelerated appreciation of homes across Tampa Bay, median housing prices are projected to stabilize throughout 2021. What is more, Realtor.com anticipated a return to normal seasonality in housing prices by April 2021. “Access to capital is always extremely important for the economy but an excess of access can create greater problems. Our role is to continue to be a stable and steady source of capital to the market. We do not need to be something we are not, manufacturing solutions. We see that will happen sometimes when banks act like they are not necessarily banks to avoid any type of problem, creating feeble fixes to keep everybody feeling good for a while. What we hope as an industry is that we can continue to be safe, steady, secure sources of capital to support projects that should get done,” Porter Smith, market president for Tampa Bay at American Momentum Bank, told Invest:.

Competitive landscape Even in the face of adversity such as that caused by COVID-19, Tampa Bay continues to capitalize on its

The increased adoption of remote work will change the dynamics of the banking industry’s workforce well into the future. competitive advantages such as cost-effective real estate compared to its Florida sisters — Miami and Fort Lauderdale — its extremely friendly business climate, its geographical location and weather.

Several financial household names already call Tampa Bay home, after all. They also house sizable back-office operations in the Bay region. Success stories in the financial services space abound in the area. Citigroup counts more than 8,100 employees at its Brandon campus for instance. What is more, it created 700 additional jobs throughout the pandemic. London-based Wise, an international money transferring company formerly known as TransferWise, was looking to set up a Tampa footprint with 40 professionals in December 2020. Fee-only investment adviser Fisher Investments opened its first East Coast office in the Tampa Bay Park corporate center. It is expected to gather 600 employees. This arrival concluded in June 2020 adds to the long list of newcomers that Tampa can boast of having attracted in the midst of a challenging pandemic setting, including USAA, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, MetLife, Baker McKenzie and even pharmaceutical heavyweight Amgen.

Formerly New York-based tech-enabled tax company CrossBorder Solutions made the move to St. Petersburg, which has been racking up a continuous stream of relocations since October 2019, including Ukraine-based tech company NIX United, Baltimore-based Madison Cloud and Canadian-based CodeBoxx Technology.

The region is also spearheading the development of blockchain-enabled startups by providing a business and tech environment in which to thrive. Notable local blockchain players include RB Technologies, Real ( )