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GREENSBORO — The Greensboro City Council has offered the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship a loan of up to $1.2 million to renovate a new headquarters.

The nonprofit needs to move out of its space and is looking to renovate the old Carolina Steel headquarters building on South Elm-Eugene Street, which was donated to the center.

Mayor Bill Knight asked the council to offer a low-interest loan. The nonprofit will have to come up with about $100,000 a year to repay the loan.

“It’s not necessarily going to be easy,” said Nussbaum Center President Sam Funchess. “But that’s what we are tasked with — how to make that happen.”

The center is a business incubator that has helped create more than 1,300 local jobs. It offers help to local startup businesses and shelters them until they can move out on their own.

The nonprofit needs to relocate by the end of the year because its current space is scheduled to be renovated and leased out at higher rates.

Nussbaum leaders have identified two grants worth $1.6 million from the federal government and the Golden Leaf Foundation to renovate the donated building. They asked the City Council to help with the rest.

Last month, council members balked at the idea of donating $1.2 million to finish the job.

Knight met with Nussbaum Center officials late last week to review the financial information.

Knight said he felt confident they had exhausted other possibilities for funding.

“Time is critical. By July 1, they’ve got to be in a position to move or in the worst of scenarios, the Nussbaum Center would just run off the tracks and not be able to move forward,” he said.

Councilmen Zack Matheny and Robbie Perkins asked their colleagues to consider giving the nonprofit some kind of incentive, such as forgiving some of the debt for every new job created.

Ultimately, council members agreed to offer a 20-year, $1.2 million loan at 2.5 percent interest, with the first payment due in two years. The loan will be contingent on the nonprofit getting the other grants.

Funchess said the city’s loan would go toward construction — as opposed to furnishing the office space. The nonprofit uses hand-me-down tables and chairs in its conference rooms.

Even with the new funding, the nonprofit still will have to start raising private funds to help pay back the city.

The nonprofit is self-sustaining, using rental revenue to pay for things like payroll. The organization will have to find more revenue to pay back the loan.

“The proposal isn’t ideal,” Funchess said. “But it gets us closer than yesterday.”

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com