I wanted to inform the community of the USDA Rural Development Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program and Rural Energy for Americaa Program.

This program offers loans up to $25,000,000 in designated rural areas.  This is defined as areas with a population of less than 50,000 people or less.  You can see if your property falls into rural using this link:

 http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/welcomeAction.do

You would be surprised what might be considered rural and what this program covers.  Machinery and Equipment, Commercial Real Estate and Buildings, Retirement Homes, Grocery Stores, Gas Stations, etc.   Did I say gas stations ?  Environmental Policy is every bit as strict as SBA or more but they will do them. 

Great terms and there are even grants that can offer 25% of energy audit expenses and 25% of energy improvement expenses.

Spread the word or direct your customers to this program.

I wanted to share a meeting my business partner had today that did not go well at all.

He and our Director of Energy and Sustainability Division were meeting with a banker at a long term customer larger bank.  They introduced themselves and before they could sit down the banker was telling them that they had a tough road ahead in this particular market with a lot of competition and that my firm's prices have been too high on Phase I ESAs in the past and that is why they (the bank) aren't using my firm.  We asked what type of prices that he was seeing for Phase I ESAs and he said between $1,200 to $1,500.  We politely told him that those were well below market rates and that we would not go that low.

We quickly changed the subject to avoid a quickly disintegrating meeting and began to describe the energy services.  We discussed the services and how major banks may be requesting these services in the near future as part of Green Building Due Diligence on buildings.  The banker stated that there is no way that his customers would "buy those services" and how is there is no risk in not conducting this type of assessment and there is no reason the bank would require this.  We "defended" our business for awhile but eventually gave up.

THE GOOD NEWS......This is the first meeting we have had where this new line of business had not been well received.

Well of course it is good news once it improves.  I just read a USA today poll conducted by Robert Half of 1,400 CFOs on what they will buy once the economy improves.  Of interest to commercial real estate and EPs was 14% planned a new location or other real estate.  6% were planning mergers/acquisitions.  I continue to pull the fragments of good news out of the media to fuel optimism. 

Yes you read that correctly.  What ever you may read or hear in your market place, I am always pleased to report real world small business experience.  Our corporate Headquarters five year balloon is due next month.  We were talking to our primary commercial real estate bank, who is a large top 5 national player and were concerned about how the appraisal would come in and were not thrilled with the proposed terms 5/10 vs. a more favorable 5/15 to keep our payment lower (that means a 15 year amortization vs 10 year.  Don't feel bad it takes a while to learn banker nomenclature).  Since we work with so many banks we inquired about the terms with two other banks.  One a regional ($13 billion in assets) and one larger community bank ($3 billion in assets).  They both eagerly offered there input and inquired about an opportunity to present a proposal.  With in two weeks we had three commitments that were very competitive.

I was amazed to see this competition in commercial real estate lending.  It made me feel good with all the competitive bidding I have been losing in the last year and a half.

In the end the big bank came back with great terms (5/15 and a great interest rate).  We will refi in a couple of weeks.  Details to consider, this is a smaller loan ($500,000 to $1,000,000) and it is in Michigan.  Another interesting thing about bad old Michigan is that we have only had three of the countless FDIC bank takeovers in the last 18 months. 

I have found myself challenged with finding time to maintain blog every other week.  In fact it has been closer to every three to three and half weeks.  My blogging for dummies handbook tells me I must be consistent with a routine pattern as much as twice a week.  My fault is I am human.  The Internet hosts some a large volume of information that we have all been consumed with data and that means reading other blogs, news websites, industry websites, LinkedIn groups, twitter, etc.  Because I feel I am lacking in keeping up with my blog I am developing a sense of guilt.  Do any of you find yourself with this challenge ?  My race is against the clock.  A demanding career, a demanding family (three boys under 6 years old), health and fitness, holidays and lets not forget our traditional networking live and in person.  Monday morning I completed my normal weight lifting routing, drove my son to school, worked, evening networking event until 8:30, home, talked to my wife and went to bed.  I just did not have it in me to write a blog.  Yesterday I had school drop off, coffee meeting in the morning (live networking), lunch presentation on environmental risk an hour away, report reviews, conference calls and finally made it home.  I went for a three mile run (health and fitness) with two of my boys in the jogger stroller (family), then took the whole family in my wife's car to get fuel, got home, put them to bed and had about 45 minutes of just my wife and I time.  Again no time for a blog or other social networking.  Multi-tasking is a must.  Tomorrow I have a squash tournament which includes social in person and fitness (I will get a little online while responding to comments on blog on my blackberry too).  Well my guilt was buidling too much and I am writing my blog first thing in the morning before the chaos starts over again.  I am honored to host a blog on commonground and will be ramping up my efforts.  Today's blog is my new online self therapy to shed my guilt and get back on track for a active fall and winter social networking season. 

I am in no way discounting the importance of blogging or social networking but rather opening a forum for others to discuss the challenges of hosting a blog, keeping up with your LinkedIn, Commonground or other social networking sites, traditional networking and overall living the game of life.

Are your entry level professionals who work in the field collecting soil or ground water samples or logging soil borings required to have OSHA 40 hour training ?  To most reputable firms the answer is yes.  Some try and do it poorly.  Read Alan Agadoni's Blog When Good Training Goes Bad.  I could start a separate discussion on those firms that do but that is another issue. 

Are your entry level professionals training for due diligence consulting required to have minimal training ?  Most firms would require a BS in earth science, geology or engineering.  Most entry levels candidates simply do not have enough training to be prepared to start writing phase I ESAs.  They certainly do not know the business, the history and the fundamentals of commercial real estate finance and AAI.  With all the bugs worked out of the first graduating class of Due Diligence University, we are now requiring the course for our new hires.  We are requiring this in lieu of our always outdated, never fully implemented internal training.  I think as this course takes root it will set the minimum bar for professionals and do not think that bar is low.  This is a comprehensive six week course with topics ranging the full spectrum from the history of due diligence to commercial real estate to risk mitigation.  My company was actively involved with a module on historical sources and I was thoroughly impressed with the detail of training.  Hands on aerial photo and sanborn reviews and interpretation with several real world examples.  There is also a social networking component where students can discuss with one another about the current modules.  I no longer need to explain to a newbie what commercial real estate is or how due diligence work evolved.  It is all there.  And no taking the course and getting a star on your forehead.  You need to take a test and get 80%.

Completion of this course should be noted on a CV.  I know that if I am looking at two candidates with 1-2 years experience the candidate with DDU has an edge.

I look forward to the community of environmental professionals to embrace and buttress this course.  I f you do not know what DDU is you need to take a hard look at this powerful course.

I had a comical experience I had to share with the community this week.  A fairly reputable and established wetland consulting firm asked to present a lunch and learn on their services.  I obliged and arranged for our due diligence and site characterization groups to join in.  The owner of the company clearly did no research on our company and started his introduction by stating how he had no business sense or business development ability.  This became evidently clear as the presentation moved on.

He stated how he was really lucky when development was booming because he was 100% referral based as he formerly worked for the government wetlands division.  Work was just handed to him when development was big but now it is dead and he has little work so he is now visiting companies like mine.  I am not sure he knew what companies like mine do as he did zero research.  He then stated that he is not an advocate to his clients, but rather he is friends with the regulators and would not want to make them mad at him.  I do not want to fight with regulators but you must be an advoacte for your client at some level.  Remember this is a reputable firm in business over 15 years.  He than stated if you want an advaocate hire an attorney.  Oh yes and don't let me forget Phase I ESAs.  We did talk about those too.  He stated that they do those too..... but not very good and they tell their clients that and disclaim it in the report but they ill do them.  I would love to hear that conversation with the client and read the language about the incompetence.   He then says to our entire group "I do not know if you guys do Phase I ESAs but I am sure you know anyone can do one of those".  He is lucky I did not eject him from the building with that comment.  He then tells us any other Phase II or cleanup work they come across they refer to the wetland attorneys so they would not be able to refer that type of work to us either.  Pretty smart.  Did I mention he opened with the comment that he stated he had no business sense ?  Luckily I received a call at this point and was able to leave the meeting.  The presentation may have improved after that, but I doubt it.

Anyways with development down you may be seeing wetland consultants who think they can do Phase I ESAs.  I do not provide any wetland services but I did respond to his comment by saying that I am sure he would laugh as hard at a wetland study I would try to prepare as I would laugh at one of his Phase I ESAs.  I do not think he got it !!