Valpariso's RDC closes on $10.3 million in loans for small businesses

The Regional Development Company has announced it closed 18 small-business loans for a total of $10.3 million in 2015, which helped create or retain up to 276 jobs.

By working with local banks and small businesses, $24.1 million of new investments were made throughout the greater Chicagoland area the Regional Development Company serves, according to President and Executive Director Erica Dombey.

The Regional Development Company, based in Valparaiso, is an economic development organization licensed by the U.S. Small Business Administration to make loans to small businesses under the SBA's 504 loan program.

Those loans leverage lending from local banks along with money provided by the small businesses themselves.