The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority’s Diversified Contractors Accelerator Program (DCAP) has eclipsed the $4 million mark with $4,102,148 in total loans approved since the program’s inception in December 2010. The program, which provides financial support to encourage increased participation by northwest Ohio-based minority and women-owned contractors in publicly bid work and privately funded construction projects, currently has 51 participants who have received funding for 92 projects.
“We are thrilled that we have been able to leverage the initial $400,000 in seed capital more than ten times to provide access to capital to the local contracting community,” said Paul Toth, president and CEO of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. “We hope that by utilizing this program, DCAP participants will have the capability to bid on larger projects, and as a result, see their businesses grow.”
DCAP offers access to bid, performance and payment bonds to contractors who are unable to obtain bonding through traditional sources, and offers access to capital for the purchase of materials and payment of labor costs. Bonding is an essential piece of both public and private construction and construction-related businesses. Access to capital is equally critical to fund project materials and labor costs. By allowing the bonding and project cash flow decision to be brought to a local community level, DCAP intends to remove some of the obstacles that many minority and women-owned businesses face in securing bonding and managing project cash flow. In addition, the program supplements the contractors’ educational and financial strategies by providing resources to leverage local industry training programs designed to teach the basics of the business of construction, and in turn empower them to better compete and to build the tools necessary for long-term business success.
The program has received national attention from various parties around the country, all of whom are interested in implementing a similar program in their own city, region or state. The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority developed DCAP in cooperation with the Toledo Minority Contractors Business Assistance Programs, Ohio Department of Development Division of Minority Business Enterprise, Lucas County, City of Toledo, University of Toledo, Northwest Ohio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, African American Bureau of Commerce, local banking community, and minority and women-owned business community.
