Ronald L. Phillips, President

P.O. Box 268
36 Water Street
Wiscasset, ME 04578

Phone: (207) 882-7552
Fax: (207) 882-7308

cei@ceimaine.org ww.ceimaine.org

Counties Served: Androscoggin, Aroostook, Cumberland, Franklin, Hancock, Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Sagadahoc, Somerset, Waldo, Washington, York

Incorporated: 1977  

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STRATEGIES & ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Financial Services
As a financial intermediary, Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI) has participated in more than $400 million of equity and debt financing for 1,200 local businesses, service facilities, and affordable housing developments. Its activities have helped to create or sustain jobs for more than 11,000 people.

Its Development Fund finances job-generating ventures up to $500,000. Its Enterprise Fund provides financing of up to $50,000 for small, micro, and self-employment enterprises. CEI's Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership makes equity investments of up to $500,000 to develop Maine companies that generate above-average equity returns and create quality jobs.

CEI's Housing Fund provides pre-development and construction financing for rehabilitation and new construction projects that serve low-income people. CEI also runs targeted loan funds that focus on developing Maine's environmental business market, marine resources, and child-care and assisted living providers.

Workforce and Economic Development
CEI's Employment and Training Agreement (ETAG) is a successful job-generating idea that links business financing with employment, education, and training for low-income workers. The current 119 businesses in ETAG have collectively hired more than 1,000 low-income people and former welfare recipients. CEI's Individual Development Account (IDA) program helps these employees gain self-sufficiency. It allows participants to save for a home, post-secondary education, or business ownership with a 1:1 match for every dollar saved; up to $4,000 saved within 36 months.

Over the last five years, CEI has incorporated explicit environmental goals into its community economic development work. Due to Maine's traditional dependence on nuclear energy and the subsequent closing of the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Plant in 1996, the organization plans to conduct a market scan of existing renewable energy industries in the state and the potential for encouraging their development.

Affordable Homes
Since 1989, CEI has been funding, constructing, and rehabilitating affordable housing. It provides technical assistance to developers and nonprofit organizations, manages its own and other owners' properties, and provides leadership to a variety of education and advocacy efforts.

CEI acquires, develops, finances, and manages multi-family housing for families, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Currently, it owns or manages nearly 130 residential homes.

Low-income families and individuals are able to rent the home they wish to buy while saving towards their down payment and closing costs through CEI's Lease-Purchase Program. In 2000, more than 50 families acquired homes this way, and a total of 300 families received homeownership education and counseling. CEI also assists people with disabilities afford the down payment and closing costs of buying a home. In 2000, it provided homeownership loans to 75 people with disabilities.

Training and Technical Assistance
CEI provides technical assistance to new and existing small businesses in Maine. It also offers consulting and training to community economic development practitioners and policy makers in the United States and abroad. Since its inception, CEI has provided training and technical assistance to more than 10,000 small businesses.

The organization runs a Small Business Development Center, which provides comprehensive business assistance and information services to the small business community; and a Women's Business Center, which provides workshops, counseling, and financing assistance to women-owned businesses. It has a business development program tailored for refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs, one for small-scale farm businesses, and one for fishers and marine enterprises. In addition, CEI assists Maine businesses that want to develop or expand markets into Europe.