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Home My WebLink AboutM-85-1026LAN ZES ' BARP. BLARSEMS PONALDL BOCK "ARLES A C,-MIN =DWAPD HEILBPONNEP _PSULA MANCUSI LINGAPO "OWAPD E POSKIN POSERT L PLBIN PONALD A SITAPO ARNOLD D SHEvIN JEROME H SHEvIN PCBEPT L SHEVLN S-EVEN SONBERG B'PON L SPARSER STEPHEN A STtEGLITZ CET- STCPEK APTHUP E TEELE. JP j EcrRE' M WEISSMAN SPARBER, SHEVIN, SHAPO & HEILBRONNER PP(.'rrSSiONAL ASSC- A- C P,C"ARD I BIJNDEPMAN JOSE A BOLANOS MICHAEL J CONICL-O BP#AN S DERVISH1 MARTIN E DOTLE ALAN J I-P-EDMAN DAUL A GOLDBEPG MO,SES T jRA'SON SANDRA P GPEENBLAT- MCHAEL E HILL MICHAEL KOSNITZK� DAMES A MINIx D JLSTIN NILES GAP' S PHILL'PS LAWRENCE M PLCL.CHA MARK T PEEVES MARSHA C POSEN October 3rd, 1985 Commissioner Miller Dawkins 3500 Pan American Drive Miami, Fla. 33130 _AP. c c�'LEJ�E EL BABE-"=.--NASEC SSEN SE•"CLP N S N0EP PEG3 :EPALC . + SNER . ^r NSEL 4 =_- P BACA_,S =.EPN� EN-n_ A.-�A PS ::=N Ste _"AN- • ACI- ^EC v C _ ;NL• N!AN+� �LOR•De 3�,3 -ELEPHONE 3C5. 35A "99C ELECCPIEP 35B 9e15 rCPT LAL:CECDALE 524 C2L N CRTH BMDWARD'81 952' -ABLE WTEPTAX 'ELEx 5, 933' TALLAHASSEE CrrICE 7S SCJ-H CALHOL•N STPEE- ?APNE-T eANK 9u?LD'NG =U'TE 348 -ALLAHASSEE. rLORIDA 3230, -ELEP-CNE (90a) 6Bi '05i -ELEC0--EP 224 2'ea REPLY TO: MIAMI OIrFICE Dear Commissioner Dawkins: This correspondence is written on behalf of the South Florida Business League, Inc of Miami, Florida. Please find enclosed a grant request for the establishment of a MESBIC in Miami, Fla. The basic proposal is currently before the Board of the Knight Foundation. Furthermore, during the Beacon Council debate, Mr. Stierheim agreed to take a closer look at the feasibility of using a locally based MESBIC as a funding vehicle for venture capital MBE projects in Dade County. I am taking this opportunity to request that the City of Miami provide a grant to the South Florida Business League venture capital funds of One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) to be made available to minorities participating in the Bayside project. As a condition of the grant the South Florida Business League agrees to: 1. Arrange for the movement of the headquarters of the National Business League Capital Corporation from Washington, D.C. to Miami. 2. Provide an additional (matching) $1,000,000 for venture capital purposes for minority participation in the Bayside project. 3. Reconstitute the investment committee to include a majority of local minorities. 4. Subject to S.B.A. approval, name a local minority administrator, (People's National Bankshares Holding Company has been designated.) 1?OT/'D� rs-- iv CPO Page Two 5. 100% of the proceeds of the grant must go for the stated purposes. (No overhead and administrative fees) 6. Thus the total sum of $2,000,000 of venture capital for the minorities will be made available for the Bayside project from this grant. Additional venture capital dollars could be made available for other purposes. The advantages of the MESBIC are obvious: 1. The potential for up to 3 - 1 leverage of SBA funds. (debentures) 2. Community involvement in the approval of the venture capital process. (The South Florida Business League Board of Directors is attached. The Board represents a broad cross-section of the minority community) 3. Strict financial controls in accordance with (Federal) Small Business Administration regulations. S.B.A. must approve the administrator, the board members of the MESBIC, and venture capital deals. 4. The People's National Bank has been designated as the Administrator. This will provide greater flexibility to the sole black -owned financial institution in the private sector. 5. The use of a federally recognized and generally accepted market -place private sector approach to the provision of minority venture capital. 6. A grant to the South Florida Business League provides for minimum government involvement and non -essential oversight. Careful and full oversight is provided for by the S.B.A. financial management office. There will be minimum opportunity for political considerations or manipulations in the venture capital loan/equity process. The Board of Directors of the South Florida Business League (attached) has asked Art Hill, Chairman of the Board; George Knox, First Vice Chairman; Pat Johnson, Vice Chairman and myself, as President, to constitute a committee. We are continuing our efforts to work with Knight Foundation. The S.B.A. requires that $250,000 be immediately infused into the MESBIC. The MESBIC currently has approximately $650,000 of capital and S.B.A. backed debentures. i 1 .t Page Three As I stated this MESBIC concept represents a unique opportunity to begin the long and arduous process of significantly increasing the economic development' within the minority community. I believe that the missing element to virtually all of the efforts that have taken place to date are the lack of minority participation and reasonable control over the resources to address minority problems; and, the failure of our community to address minority problems with a private sector "mind -set" and approach. This grant proposal is submitted in the hope that the majority of the City Commission will act by providing a private sector tool and vehicle that is available to all of the minority community of Miami that will be relatively free of political influence, and unnecessarily public sector oversights. I am providing an identical the Commission. Warmest regards. Faithfully, Arthur E. Teele, Jr. cc: Mr. Sergio Pereira letter to your colleagues on c