By SHELLEY SUTTON
Arizona Daily Star
Thursday, October 18, 2007
In the span of several months, entrepreneur and Air Force veteran Sean Collins has gone from serving his country to serving ice cream at his own Dairy Queen.
He and his wife Tracy are chillin' as the first Arizona recipients of a new Patriot Express loan offered by the Small Business Administration just for vets.
"We had been planning this for quite a while," he said in an interview at his new ice cream eatery last week in Vail, Ariz., seated comfortably in what is probably the largest lobby you'll ever see in a Dairy Queen.
Collins was in the Air Force for almost 22 years, stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base from 1999 until he retired as a senior non-commissioned officer in 2003.
Tracy Collins, a real estate agent, worked her first job at a Dairy Queen during high school and college, and the couple loved the idea of giving other young people in their fast-growing area a shot at their first jobs as well, Sean said.
Last spring they left their four children - two teens and two preschoolers - in the care of family and friends for three weeks while they attended Dairy Queen school in Minneapolis.
"The hardest thing about the training, for me, was making the cone," Sean Collins said.
The Collinses have been working from the get-go with Pima Community College's Small Business Development Center, which put them in touch with Vantage West Credit Union for funding.
The Vail Dairy Queen cost about $600,000, including all the tenant improvements, Collins said.
It has 1,560 square feet of space, a drive-through and some of the most modern technology that a fast-food joint can have.
There was one problem: It came in way over the original budget.
"Just at that time, the Patriot Express loan came out," he said. The loan provided everything necessary to complete the job. "It was the easiest thing we've ever done."
The Patriot Express program, which officially launched June 13, provides loans of up to $500,000 to eligible borrowers, including veterans and service-disabled veterans; reservists and National Guard members, and active-duty service members in the military's Transition Assistance program.
Loans can be used for most business purposes, including start-up, expansion, equipment purchases, working capital, inventory or business-occupied real estate purchases.
As of Oct. 5, 352 Patriot Express loans had been approved - averaging $101,734 - for a total of $35.8 million, according to the SBA.
The SBA is expecting demand for the program to be high, but doesn't expect funding will run out, said SBA spokesman Dennis Byrne.
"It will probably cap at some point, but there's no indication that we're anywhere near that point," he said.
The Patriot Express Pilot Loan Initiative will be offered through 2010, at which point the SBA will evaluate its performance and decide whether to continue or modify the program.
Vantage West business loan officer Paul Breiterman already was working with a couple of viable candidates for the program, including Collins, when it became available last summer.
"What separated Sean was his reputation in the community and the amount of due diligence that he did," Breiterman said. "The fact he was retired military with over 20 years of service absolutely made him a very good fit for this."
Vantage West has about a half-dozen other Patriot Express loans coming down the pipeline in Southern Arizona that should close by the end of the year, he said.
Collins said it's nice that the Patriot Express loans assume more risk than most standard business loans.
"It's hard enough to open up a small business," he said, "but this really gets you embedded in the community."
News assistant Tiana Velez contributed to this report. Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at sshelton(at)azstarnet.com.
Post new comment