A Lebanon County sign manufacturer has been approved for a low-interest loan of $1.21 million through the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority.
Horst Signs’ 15-year, 0.75% reset loan will go toward a demolition, renovation, and construction project at its property in Myerstown.
It was one of two PIDA loan approvals announced last week by Gov. Tom Wolf.
“Agriculture and manufacturing are two of our commonwealth’s proudest and strongest industries and they need our continued support as they grow and expand, especially now as our economy navigates a pandemic,” Wolf said in a release. “These projects will bring major investments into central Pennsylvania, supporting local farming, processing and distribution and a decades-old, locally owned hand lettering sign business.”
The loan was initially approved through the Lebanon Valley Economic Development Corp., said its president and CEO, Susan Eberly, before getting a final OK from the state. PIDA is under the umbrella of the Department of Community and Economic Development.
A reset loan is one where the interest rate can be reset after seven years, she said, but any increase is limited to 200 basis points (2%).
According to the release, the money will go toward demolishing a portion of an existing building, renovating the remaining 18,653-square-foot property, and constructing an 18,703-square-foot addition. This will provide more than 37,000 square feet of newly renovated and constructed space for the business to expand, creating four new jobs in three years. The total project cost is $2.46 million.
Horst Signs, founded in 1982 by Howard Horst, makes a range of commercial signs for indoor and outdoor use, as well as vehicle graphics. It also has a location in Denver, Lancaster County.
Lebanon Valley Economic Development Corp. currently handles mostly agricultural loans, such as for poultry farms, but would like to do more industrial loans, like the one for Horst Signs, Eberly told LebTown.
“We do maybe one industrial loan a year,” she said, compared with 10 or so ag loans.
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