The JLDC approved a bridge loan for Jade Empire LLC for work to be able to begin on the city’s Prendergast Landing project. P-J file photo

A loan for the ongoing work on the Prendergast Landing Project in the city has been approved by the Jamestown Local Development Corporation..

The loan from the JLDC was asked for by Jade Empire LLC for the project, and owner Rahsaan Graham joined the meeting via Zoom due to being at a leadership retreat and being unable to be in town, with some other team members attending in person.

Aili Makuch, city economic development coordinator, said Jade Empire is asking for a loan for $350,000 with a 10 year term and an interest rate of four percent.

“As some of you may have noticed, this is not your standard JLDC loan, this is to be viewed more as a bridge loan or temporary financing for this project,” Makuch said. “There is a lot of grant funding from the state going towards this project and it is all reimbursable, so Rahsaan came to us seeking funding to get the project continued moving forward and the intention here is that once he receives those grant funds the loan will be paid off in its entirety.”

The loan will be paid off in normal monthly installments until that point.

Graham and Jade Empire LLC have been working on the Prendergast Landing project for a few years, with the plan being to renovate the 12,000 square foot building on the corner of Fairmount Avenue and West Eighth Street as well as two adjacent lots. The building will house a small cafe, a retail outfitter for outdoor activities and a boutique showcasing local small businesses on the ground floor, with flexible office spaces for entrepreneurs and a multi-purpose room for community events on the second floor. The third floor will have three residential lofts.

Makuch addressed some small schedule revisions, emphasizing that the JLDC loan is just capital to get the project moving, and will not be considered in the total amount of the project. It was noted that this is a different type of loan than the JLDC normally gives out and approves, and loan repayment was briefly discussed and how that will work before state grants that are paying for the project start coming in.

The number of grants that will be coming in for the project and which ones are coming from where were then discussed, including that the state grants that have been marked for the project will be there to be used and are not likely to be rescinded or go away in any form.

The plan is for construction to be finished with a ribbon cutting towards the end of the summer, around July or August.

The anticipation is that the project will be completed before the first grant payment deadlines begin to hit. City Development Director, Crystal Surdyk, also noted that this specific building for this project used to be Joyce’s Keg Room and has had many lives before work on this project began.

“It was actually going to be demolished,” Surdyk said. “It had a different owner at the time. They didn’t know what to do with it, it sat vacant and was across the street from another of their properties, so they thought they’d just tear it down.”

Surdyk said she happened to see a post on Facebook about it looking like it was going to be demolished and reached out to them to ask to hold off to see if there was something else she could find to do with it. She added that the owners did not want to see it demolished but did not know what else to do with it, and that is how the connection was eventually made with Jade Empire to help save and reconstruct this property.

The building is also surrounded by other projects and ongoing activities in that area of the city.

Graham discussed some of his own personal history with the building and project, and following a little bit more discussion on structural integrity and a few other financial questions, the JLDC approved the loan for Jade Empire LLC for the Prendergast Landing project. The loan also went to the City Council for approval during their voting session on Monday night, due to the loan being over $100,000.