2011
Vol. 2
Borrower
Spotlight
Mark F. Bellard, D.D.S., Inc. is
a specialist in orthodontics for
children and adults. Born and
raised in Beaumont, Dr. Bel-
lard attended Texas A&M
University where he graduated
with honors. He later attended
the University of Texas Health
Science Center in Houston
where he received his Doctor
of Dental Surgery degree. He
later returned to the University
of Texas for orthodontic spe-
cialty training. Dr. Bellard is a
board certified specialist and a
Diplomat of the American
Board of Orthodontics, as well
as a member of various other
boards and organizations.
Since 2004, Dr. Bellard has
received the designation of
Super Dentist every year by
his peers. Dr. Bellard’s new
office is located in Acadiana
Court on Delaware in Beau-
mont, Texas. For more infor-
mation on their services,
please contact their office at
(409) 899-4884 or visit their
website at:
www.bellardorthodintics.com
1110 Park Street ∙ Beaumont, Texas ∙ 77627 | Phone (409) 838-6585 | Fax (409) 833-6718 | www.setedf.org | www.sballiancecapital.org
The SETX Economic Times
A quarterly journal of the Southeast Texas Economic Development Foundation
SBA 504 Debt Refinancing
You don’t have to be a small business owner to under-
stand the difficulties small businesses have encoun-
tered over the past 18-24 months. As our economic
stability is still vulnerable, our federal institutions have
implemented various programs to assist small busi-
nesses in overcoming the obstacles that a slow econ-
omy can present.
The U.S. Small Business Administration offers various
financial lending opportunities to eligible small busi-
nesses. SBAlliance Capital participates in the SBA 504
loan program and provides long term fixed rate financ-
ing for the purchase, renovation and construction of
commercial real estate and equipment. Recent regula-
tions have allowed the 504 loan program to temporarily
provide for the refinancing of 504 eligible debt.
The new refinancing loan is structured like SBA’s tradi-
tional 504, with borrowers committing at least 10 per-
cent equity and working with third-party lending institu-
tions and SBA-approved Certified Development Com-
panies in the standard 50 percent/40 percent split. A
key feature of the new program is that it does not re-
quire an expansion of the business in order to qualify.
―The economic downturn of recent years and the de-
clining value of real estate have had a significant,
negative impact on many small businesses with mort-
gages maturing within the next few years,‖ said SBA
Administrator Karen Mills. ―As a result, even small
businesses that are performing well and making their
payments on time could face foreclosure because of
the difficulties they face in refinancing and restructuring
their mortgage debt. This temporary program is an-
other tool SBA can provide to help these small busi-
nesses remain viable and protect jobs.‖
Many small businesses have chosen to file bankruptcy
to prevent foreclosure. Bankruptcy filings have in-
creased 8.1% during the 12 month period ending De-
cember 31, 2010. This program will provide small
businesses the opportunity to secure more stable, long
term financing in order to prevent additional financial
hardship.
Not all businesses will qualify and must satisfy the
requirements specified in the temporary regulation. To
be eligible for the temporary 504 refinancing program,
a business must have been in operation for at least
two years, the debt to be refinanced must be for owner
The Southeast Texas Economic Development Foundation | SBAlliance Capital
this issue
SBA 504 Debt Refinance P.1
Zero Emission Energy Plants (ZEEP) P.2
Golden Triangle Days Austin P.2
Economic Trends P.3
My Town My Job My Voice P.4
occupied real estate and have been incurred no less
than two years prior to the date of application, the
proceeds must have been used for 504 eligible busi-
ness expenses, and payments on that debt must be
current for the last 12 months. Existing 504 projects
and other government guaranteed loans are note eligi-
ble for refinancing under this provision.
Borrowers will be able to refinance up to 90 percent of
the current appraised property value or 100 percent of
the outstanding mortgage, whichever is lower, plus
eligible refinancing costs. Loan proceeds may not be
used for other business expenses. The loan structure
will be based on the real estate appraisal completed at
the time of application submission.
Under the Jobs Act, Congress authorized SBA to ap-
prove up to $15 billion in loans under this program
($7.5 billion in both fiscal years 2011 and 2012). To-
gether with the first mortgage, this temporary program
will provide up to $33.8 billion of total project financing.
Additional fees charged to the borrower will cover the
cost of this refinancing program, and as a result, no
loan subsidy will be needed from taxpayer funds. The
program is expected to benefit as many as 20,000
businesses.
If you are interested in learning more about how this
program can benefit small businesses in your area,
SBAlliance Capital will be hosting ―A Small Business
Seminar—SBA 504Debt Refinancing‖ on April13th at
4:00pm at the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Com-
merce. The Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce
is located at 1110 Park Street, Beaumont, Texas
77701. If you would like to attend, or have a client that
may be interested in what the program is able to offer,
please contact Jessica Hill at (409) 838-6585 to re-
serve your seat.
A Small Business Seminar
504 Debt Refinancing
April 13, 2011
4:00pm
Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce
1110 Park Street, Beaumont, Texas 77701
Lender
Spotlight
In 1953, MCT Credit Union was
organized by a small group of
employees from the Port
Neches and Nederland school
districts. That small group of
employees wanted their "own"
place to borrow and save. Since
that time, the credit union has
provided that same ownership
to several local businesses.
As a member of MCT Credit
Union, you're an owner of your
financial institution, not just a
customer. Credit Unions were
established with people like you
in mind - people who work for a
living, save and borrow.
MCT Credit Union is ready to
assist you with your commercial
lending needs. Their services
include financing for inventory,
commercial real estate, land
development and commercial
vehicles.
Making Commitments Together
is their promise to the commu-
nity as they continue to be in-
volved in all area fundraisers,
sponsorships, festivals, and
more in the hopes of helping to
make a difference in the com-
munity where we live and where
children are growing up.
www.mctcu.org
409.727.1446
Port Neches | Bridge City |
Orange | Nederland | Lumberton
1110 Park Street ∙ Beaumont, Texas ∙ 77627 | Phone (409) 838-6585 | Fax (409) 833-6718 | www.setedf.org | www.sballiancecapital.org
Zero Emission
Energy Plants
Eastman Chemical Company’s
announcement it would discon-
tinue development of a new facility
in Beaumont came as a disap-
pointment to the Southeast Texas
Region. However, Eastman’s com-
mitment to the investments it
made, along with their commitment
to the residents of Southeast
Texas, allowed them to maintain
the necessary relationships to
bring forth a project that will greatly
benefit this area.
Zero Emission Energy Plants Ltd.
(ZEEP) announced in January it
has entered into a definitive agree-
ment with Eastman Chemical
Company Investments, Inc., to
purchase all of the membership
interests of TX Energy, LLC (TXE).
The facility will convert petroleum
coke, an oil refining waste product,
into hydrogen (H2) and pipeline
quality carbon dioxide (CO2).
―ZEEP is anxious to continue the
work started by Eastman on the
Beaumont site,‖ said Ron Oligney,
ZEEP chief executive officer. ―We
look forward to being part of the
Beaumont community and contrib-
uting to local and state economic
Golden Triangle Days in Austin
On February 27th, over 350 dele-
gates of Southeast Texas con-
verged on Austin for the 3rd An-
nual Golden Triangle Days in
Austin event held every two years
when the Texas Legislature is in
session. In previous years each
community has visited Austin
individually. The recently com-
bined efforts of the communities
have made for quite a showing on
the Capital steps. Beaumont,
Bridge City, Groves, Nederland,
Orange, Port Arthur, Port Neches,
and Vidor are all represented as
delegates meet with elected offi-
cials to discuss the affairs that are
significant to our region.
The Southeast Texas Economic Development Foundation | SBAlliance Capital
Graphics courtesy of www.zeep.com
development by employing up to
1,500 during construction with
about 250 permanent jobs.‖
According to its website,
www.zeep.com, Zero Emission
Power Plants exists to create
clean abundant energy from our
most abundant natural energy
resources; coal, petcoke, waste
and biomass. It is ZEEP's vision to
create large energy centers for the
production of a variety of clean
inexpensive fuels around the
world.
The petroleum coke gasification
facility planned for Beaumont will
be located on a 400+ acre parcel
of industrial land with an expected
cost between $1.5 and $2.0 Billion.
Gasification is a proven industrial
process used around the world
that converts low-cost, carbon-
based materials like coal, petro-
leum coke and biomass into a high
value syngas. Petroleum coke is a
waste product from the refining of
Developed by the area Chambers
of Commerce, this year’s legisla-
tive agenda included economic
development and competitiveness,
education and workforce develop-
ment, environmental quality and
stewardship, health care, hurri-
cane/disaster recovery, insurance,
taxes, and transportation and infra-
structure.
The delegates two and a half days
in Austin were packed full of op-
portunities to meet with legislators,
experience the legislative process
in the chambers of the House and
Senate, interact with state officials
regarding policy issues, and of
heavy oil. Over 25 percent of the
world’s supply of petroleum coke is
produced on the U.S. Gulf Coast,
with much of this currently being
exported as a low-cost fuel. The
facility will convert up to 4,000 T/d
of petroleum coke into clean en-
ergy.
The facility will initially produce
hydrogen that will be used in oil
upgrading and the production of
clean fuels and chemicals. Hydro-
gen from the facility can be used in
the production of methanol, etha-
nol and other clean transportation
fuels and chemical feedstock. The
facility will capture CO2 generated
in the gasification process. This
CO2 will be used in enhanced oil
recovery activities to produce up to
35,000 Bbl/d of US oil. It will use a
combination of existing commer-
cial gasification technology and
new gasification technologies
developed by the Rocketdyne
division of Pratt & Whitney Rocket-
dyne.
Www.zeep.com
Course, the Monday night social
event that brings a taste of South-
east Texas to Austin. This year’s
event included a concert by Mark
Chesnutt and a gumbo and etouf-
fee dinner.
GTDA 2013 is scheduled for
March 3-5, 2013.
 The second Monday of the

National Economic Trends - Richard Lynch, Entergy month, SBAlliance Capital

delivers breakfast to a local

The national economy is generally following the expected script. Business investment and manufacturing, which
led the economy out of the wilderness in the early stages of the recovery, are beginning to settle into sustainable financial lending institution. We
healthy growth. As this is happening, consumers and the service sector, laggards in the recovery to date, are pick-
take this opportunity to discuss
ing up the pace. The most perplexing plot line is the continuing lack of progress in the employment market, which
we really expected to have turned around by now. Assuming hiring picks up, the real estate market backs away the SBA 504 loan program and
from its latest cliff, and one of the many candidates for next big global financial crisis doesn’t blow, then economic
growth prospects for 2011 are looking pretty decent. any changes that might be

underway . The following are

The first read on Q4 economic growth came in about where expected, although the components of the report were
mildly goofy. Overall growth was at an annualized rate of 3.2%, a solid increase over the prior two quarters. The our newest members of The
stars of the show were consumers, who stepped it up big time during the holiday season despite the apparent lack
of progress in adding jobs. Almost exactly offsetting the surge in consumption (which added 3.0% to growth) was a Breakfast Club:
huge negative swing in inventory investment (minus 3.7%) that came about due to renewed skittishness on the January: Third Coast Bank
part of businesses about holding too much inventory at the end of the year. Inventories did actually slightly in-
crease, but in the convoluted world of the national accounts that counts as a big negative because the increase February: MCT Credit Union
was so much smaller than the prior quarter’s increase. Confused yet? We’re just getting started. Net exports al-
March: MidSouth Bank
most exactly offset the offset from inventories (plus 3.4%), due both to a continued surge in exports and to a sharp
drop in imports. Because so much of what we consume is produced abroad, when inventories decline so frequently
do imports so the net result on GDP is frequently a wash.

Here’s the thing to remember about this report – real sales to domestic consumers increased a seasonally adjusted
7.1% during Q4. We keep knocking back topline numbers like that and we’re going to be alright. Since businesses
were clearly surprised by the strength of consumer sales during Q4, we’re set up for a second round of inventory
replenishment over the first part of this year as businesses scramble to keep up with demand and to rebuild de-
pleted stocks. We’re getting into a self-reinforcing sweet spot right now where growth is being generated from inter-
nal dynamic of markets rather than from external government intervention. We hope the Fed is taking note.

One of the most encouraging trends in recent economic reports has been the upturn in service sector activity as
measured by the Institute of Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index. We’ve seen steady progress in this
indicator in recent months and the January number clocked in just a shade under 60, which is a really good num-
ber. The manufacturing index was a shade over 60, which the ISM folks say is consistent with Free Lunch Friday is a lunch
GDP growth in the 6% range. Although it’s nice to see an upturn in manufacturing, services employ ten times as
many people as the manufacturing sector and we needed to see some animal spirits awaken to start making pro- SBAlliance hosts the last Friday
gress in reducing unemployment. Looks like we’re getting there.
of the month with the location
We do expect to see all this wonderful progress in the economy to someday show up in the monthly employment rotating throughout Southeast
report, but January once again wasn’t the month. We think. Economists perusing the latest report generally had
that same perplexed look on their faces that the crowd at the Super Bowl had after Christina Aguilera finished with Texas. This is an opportunity to
the national anthem – they knew something was wrong, they just weren’t sure exactly what (weren’t there sup-
learn more about the SBA 504
posed to be some bombs bursting in air in there someplace?) In a way it was a wonderful report, because there
was something in there for everyone, bull and bear alike. January was also a benchmark revision month for the loan program as well as hear
employment data, so everything you thought you knew about the previous reports changed. The total number of
employed persons for 2010 shrank by about 400,000, but estimates of the size of the population and the labor updates on the economic trends
force were also revised downwards, so it turns out there were a lot fewer unemployed than previously thought. of our region. It is your opportu-
After all the changes, January non-farm payrolls advanced a paltry 36,000, but the unemployment rate also
dropped sharply for the second consecutive month to 9.0%. nity to ask questions about the

Continued on Page 4 economic conditions locally,

throughout the state, and

across the region. If you would

like to attend a Free Lunch

Friday, please contact Jessica

Hill at 409.838.6585.

The Southeast Texas Economic Development Foundation | SBAlliance Capital

1110 Park Street ∙ Beaumont, Texas ∙ 77627 | Phone (409) 838-6585 | Fax (409) 833-6718 | www.setedf.org | www.sballiancecapital.org
 Continued from Page 3

As usual with government statistical reports, caveats abound. Part of the problem with job creation was
the weather – construction and transportation, two areas especially affected by weather, dropped a
combined 70,000. Also, the trend in recent months has been that the initial reports are subsequently
revised upwards, so it’s reasonable to assume this one will be as well. And it is becoming increasingly
apparent that the methodology that the Labor Department uses to estimate job growth tends to under-
state job creation at smaller firms, at least in the early stages of a hiring upswing. Other employment
indicators that have been more positive recently, such as the monthly report released by payroll proc-
essing firm ADP, indicate that hiring is beginning to pick-up substantially at smaller firms. If so, we can
expect those jobs to eventually show up in the government’s official tally. To summarize, it was a
stinky report, but with some hints that if we can ever stop having massive winter storms that paralyze
the nation (we’re guessing mid-June) then we could have that big blowout month we’ve all been await-
ing.

What’s going on?
What began as a discussion topic dur-
ing a planning session with the Greater
Beaumont Chamber of Commerce
board of directors in June has become
a passionate journey. The idea of a
grass roots advocacy campaign on
behalf of the oil and gas industry started
in July and took shape with the launch
of a website in September 2010,
www.mytownmyjobmyvoice.org. We
subsequently presented the concept to
the Gulf Coast Chamber Executives
and to specific chamber audiences in
Port Arthur, Baytown, Texas City, and
Northwest Houston. We have since
added twenty one (21) chamber part-
ners to the My Town campaign and two
economic development groups from
Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Irving/Los
Colinas, Texas, to Joliet, Illinois.
The first week of January we were
invited to Chicago to present to the
Illinois Petroleum Council. As a result of
the visit, we made a follow-up trip to
Joliet, Illinois where we met with five
chambers on February 22. It was our
first journey outside the Gulf Region
with our message. The Joliet Regional
Chamber’s unanimous support will
provide a foothold in the Midwest.
There haven’t been a lot of big policy-making developments lately from Washington, although that is
likely to change shortly. Now that the newly elected House Republicans have settled into their digs,
figured out where the lunchroom is and finished posting shirtless pictures of themselves on Craigslist,
we can expect the battles over budget and ideology to get cranking in earnest. The House did pass a
bill to repeal the healthcare legislation, but that was more a symbolic nanny nanny boo boo bird flip at
the President than a serious policy event. Down Pennsylvania Avenue, the administration has been
working overtime making nice to the business community, a pleasant change from the first two years
of bridge burning. Shellackings will do that to you. The President is acquiescing on legislation that de-
letes a particularly onerous portion of the healthcare bill regarding reporting of transactions for tax pur-
poses, for example, which small businesses hate with a white hot passion. It would be nice if the post
Deepwater Horizon flogging of the oil industry were toned down a bit as well, but that may be asking
too much.
Over at the Fed, Ben and company are working late nights printing dollar bills, having pumped about
$200 billion of the planned $600 billion of QE2 stimulus into the economy over the past two months.
They’ve been cheered by the fact that reported inflation at the retail level has remained quiescent
since the initiation of the program, and with the reviving economy and zooming equity markets they’re
feeling pretty smug these days. Of course the problem isn’t inflation now but inflation down the road,
and there are disturbing signs that price pressures are building in the supply chain. Right now compa-
nies are mostly sucking it up and taking hits to their profit margins rather than passing the cost in-
creases along to customers, which will last exactly as long as it takes to reel in the slack in the labor
market and in capacity utilization. Exactly how long that takes – six months, a year, three years – really
is anyone’s guess. In the meantime, we take great solace in the Chairman’s recent congressional testi-
mony that inflation is too low. In answer to your next question, yes, we suspect he doesn’t get out in
the real world quite as much as he should.

We spoke about the campaign at a rally

organized by the American Petroleum
Institute in Port Arthur and we shared
the message with the Golden Triangle
Plant Managers Association, getting
their resolution of support. We spoke to
the Golden Triangle Business Roundta-
ble and two local Rotary Clubs. We
have additional speaking engagements
in Magnolia, Texas (Chambers of Mag-
nolia Legislative Alliance), Port Neches,
and Texas City on the calendar. The
Texas Chemical Council invited us to
participate in their legislative day in
Austin on Tuesday, March 9, and we
will present at the annual conference of
the Texas Chamber of Commerce
Executives in June.

This is a summary of our story, never

expecting to go where the trail has led
us. Imagine if it can be replicated in
town after town across America! It is a
simple message to save American jobs,
encourage investment, lower energy
and transportation costs, become en-
ergy independent, and be realistic about
energy goals! - Jim Rich, Executive Dir.

Visit
www.mytownmyjobmyvoice.org
Register to make your voice
heard!

The Southeast Texas Economic Development Foundation | SBAlliance Capital

1110 Park Street ∙ Beaumont, Texas ∙ 77627 | Phone (409) 838-6585 | Fax (409) 833-6718 | www.setedf.org | www.sballiancecapital.org