Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza
www.petesapizza.com

Joel and Alicia Mehr and Tom Marr came to City First with the dream of opening a casual pizza restaurant to introduce DC to real “New Haven style” pizza. Although each had over a decade of experience in restaurant management as executive chefs and caterers, they found that obtaining financing for a startup with no track record was a serious challenge until they came to City First. Financing Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza was a natural fit for us. Located up the street from the bank’s original 14th Street location, Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza is part of an economic re-birth of Columbia Heights, a renaissance sparked by the revitalization of the Tivoli Theatre, another project financed by City First. We provided a SBA guaranteed loan to build out the restaurant space, purchase equipment, and get the business launched. It was a hit with both everyday folks and the critics, and scored a spot in The Washingtonian’s 100 Best restaurants in Washington less than a year after opening. A year and a half later, City First extended a loan to open a second location. Today, Pete’s has over 70 employees.

Blue Skye Development

Bryan Irving, majority owner and his partners, George Mavrikes and Scott Whittier run an innovative real estate development company, Blue Skye Development. Based in DC, Blue Skye was established with the mission of expanding affordable housing opportunities to low and moderate income families, including workforce housing. Mr. Irving and his partners have a deep commitment to restoring disinvested urban communities. He is a fifth generation Washingtonian and a former public school teacher. The City First loan of $1.8 million financed the acquisition and renovation of a deteriorated apartment building on Hayes Street in Ward 7. The project is located at the site of a former public housing development that had been razed to make way for a mixed income, mixed use community. Blue Skye will combine City First financing with other DC government sources, to convert the building into 26 units of quality, affordable family housing. Nine of the units will be set aside for families earning 30% or less of the area median income. It is hoped that some families displaced by the redevelopment will return to the community, a move that will be possible because of the project being developed by Blue Skye.

Charter School Incubator Initiative

City First values partnerships. We specialize in collaborating with alternative sources of financing and credit enhancement such as nonprofits and local governments. This was the case when the bank teamed with the District of Columbia and Building Hope, a nonprofit that provides technical and financial assistance to charter schools. The partnership allowed City First to finance the renovation of two former public schools for use as incubators for early stage charter schools. Because the school buildings are publicly owned, they were not available to be pledged as collateral. To overcome this obstacle, the parties collaborated to identify alternative collateral in the form of a federal grant administered by the District. With the help of this creative financing and an accelerated renovation schedule managed by Building Hope, the schools were delivered in time for the opening of the 2008-09 school year. Draper Elementary became the home of Achievement Prep and Benning Elementary now houses DC Prep and NIA Public Charter Schools. Together the buildings account for 120,000 square feet and support 407 students.

Warren Errol Brown
President, WEB’s Cakes, LLC

After attending a prestigious law school and working as a federal government lawyer, Warren Brown decided to change course and pursue his true passion: baking fabulous cakes from scratch. Warren first met City First’s Chief Lending Officer in the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights’ Fast Track Training Program. As he worked to understand the baking business and fine-tune his business plan, Warren turned to City First for other key ingredients, including expert advice on financing and the SBA–guaranteed loan process. Cakelove opened in March 2002 to rave reviews–on television, in magazines and in daily papers. Warren hasn’t looked back since. In fact, City First recently helped him secure a second SBA loan for his new dream, the Love Café, opening across the street in early 2004.