Southern Indiana Business Report
BEDFORD – A vacant building in downtown Bedford is coming back to life thanks to an entrepreneur who received financial support from the Radius Intermediary Relending Program.
Legacy Appraisal Company acquired the empty two-story building at 1003 15th St. in downtown Bedford, just a stone’s throw away from the Lawrence County Courthouse square. Legacy Appraisal, owned by Rebecca Decker, is a growing local company that provides residential, commercial and land property appraisals for a variety of different clients.
“With our growth in the recent past, we knew we needed to seek a larger space, and controlling our own building in the heart of the City was appealing,” said Decker. “We like to be in the downtown business district, helping to contribute to the vitality of the downtown.”
When Decker needed financing for her renovation of the building she acquired, she turned to Radius’s IRP program to provide a portion of her capital stack.
The Intermediary Relending Program is a rural development program operated by the United States Department of Agriculture, working through approved economic development organizations like Radius Indiana. The program enables Radius to make loans at 3.5% interest while creating a dedicated revolving loan program that can support business growth in Radius’s eight-county region. Radius currently has more than $1 million in outstanding loans and commitments.
For Legacy Appraisal, the loan approval process was slightly more complex than a private lender loan might have been, because the IRP program required a sign off by the Bedford Historic Review Board regarding the appearance of the façade improvements that Decker planned. But the local board approval was not a hindrance to eventual approval of the loan.
The façade replacement is underway along with significant internal improvements to the building.
“I know when we’re done, we’ll have an improved working environment for our team, and we’ll have made downtown look a little better and feel a little more alive,” Decker commented. “That’s a win/win scenario.”