Loan Programs

In 2003, when Sharika Thomas saw an opportunity to expand hours at her successful Brighton Road day care center for working families, she came to the Northside Community Development Fund. Her center was growing, but she needed working capital to hire two more staff members to respond to her customers’ need for expanded hours of service and to generate increased revenues.

Today, A.S. Wee Care stays open until 9 p.m. and Sharika has been able to increase her client base by almost 40 percent. As she says, “Because of the loan from the Northside Fund, we were able to extend our hours and increase the number of children we serve from 53 to 73. And the new evening hours have been so successful, I’m about to hire two new childcare workers!”

Tom Balestreire cannot hide the emotion and pride in his face when he gives a tour of their Spring Avenue facility. In his office surrounded by photographs of family members, and plaques testifying to the Balestreire’s commitment to the community, he shares part of his family history. His grandfather, Gitano, operated a produce pushcart in a small village near Palermo, Sicily before making his way to the United States some time in the early 1900’s. His continued his produce sales in the Strip District, and over the years graduated from pushcart to horse-drawn carriage and finally in 1937, to Balestreire Produce’s first truck. Nowadays, if you pass by their warehouse around 3:30 am you’d see eight large trucks heading out to deliver to some of Pittsburgh’s best-known places, including: Legends, Jerry’s 1888, TGI Fridays, Allegheny Sandwich Shoppe, Allegheny General Hospital, local Country Clubs and Mom and Pop stores throughout the region, even into West Virginia.

Seeking to bring new life to a vacant and blighted seven-story commercial facility in a Hot Zone within the Manchester neighborhood, the Northside Fund teamed with a private development to secure $3.9 million to renovate the facility. Funding was obtained through the New Market Tax Credit Program, the state Enterprise Tax Credit, private equity and HHS/OCS funds. Opening this summer, the facility has an anchor tenant—one of Pittsburgh’s fastest growing companies and an outstanding job creator.

The Northside Fund assisted the owners of the Priory Fine Pastries to secure a pilot state program offering a no-interest loan to renovate a four-story building in East Allegheny. The facility houses the bakery on the first floor and residential Victorian apartments on the second and third floors.