Business Briefs

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) New Jersey District Office reported that SBA loan approvals to women business owners throughout the state are up 56 percent during the first five months of the agency’s fiscal year 2005 — the period from Oct. 1, 2004, through Feb. 28, 2005.

The office has approved 298 loans to women-owned small businesses for a total of $41.4 million. This was up from the 191 loans for $26.8 million the district office approved during the same period in fiscal year 2004.

Hair salons were No. 1, with 22 loans for $1.6 million; full-service restaurants were ranked second with 14 loans for $3.6 million; child care centers are third with nine loans for $1.3 million; limited-service restaurants were ranked fourth with seven loans for $1 million; and nail salons were ranked fifth with six loans for $570,000.

Bergen County led the way in SBA loan approvals to women business owners, with 42 loans for $4.6 million; Monmouth County was third with 29 loans for $8 million.

The district office can be reached at (973) 645-2434 or by visiting the Web site www.sba.gov/nj. The SBA’s Online Women’s Business Center can be found at www.onlinebc.gov.

The New Jersey Shore Builders Association announced that Schoor DePalma, an engineering and consulting firm based in Manalapan and a member of NJSBA, has formed the Schoor DePalma Community Foundation. Founded in 2004, this nonprofit philanthropic arm of Schoor DePalma has already donated more than $200,000 to various causes, including the victims of the December 2004 tsunami.

In addition to providing support to tsunami victims, the Schoor DePalma Community Foundation has pledged $150,000 to a New Jersey Institute of Technology scholarship program to support students pursuing a career in engineering. Other organizations supported by the foundation since its inception include Doctors Without Borders, OXFAM America, Homeland Children’s Foundation, Direct Relief International and others.

Schoor DePalma has 12 offices in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York that offer a broad range of services in transportation, land development, building services, environmental and public works.

Organized in 1945, the NJSBA is a trade association dedicated to serving all building-related industries encompassing Monmouth and Ocean counties. For more information about the NJSBA, call (732) 364-2828 or visit www.shorebuilders.org.