news-record.com

It took longer than it should have for Greensboro's reputable small-business creator, the Nussbaum Center, to get the City Council's attention -- and even longer to receive its support.

But after seeming not to understand the business incubator's record of nurturing new companies, the council appears to be coming around.

We'll know for sure tonight, when the council revisits a city loan that would help ensure the center's survival. The loan, conditionally approved last May, would help refit the old Carolina Steel building on South Elm-Eugene Street as the center's new address.

The center has been told by its landlord that it must leave its current location on Yanceyville Street to make way for more profitable tenants, but the Carolina Steel site needs $3.3 million in renovations. The council approved the loan on the condition that the Nussbaum Center receive a federal Economic Development Administration grant. When that option unexpectedly fell through, the center found another funding path through federal new market tax credits. No one source will pay all the bills, but the city loan would go a long way toward bridging the gap from the present to the future. There's also a sense of urgency; a perceived lack of city support could jeopardize the federal tax credits.

Founded in 1987, the Nussbaum Center rarely asks for city assistance but clearly delivers results. Over the last year alone, 26 companies that employ 60 workers "graduated" from the center and 21 new companies that employ 32 moved in. As importantly, almost all Nussbaum Center companies tend to pay well and to stay in Greensboro. From a broader perspective, small business creates the vast majority of the new jobs both here and nationally.

If the council is truly serious about job creation -- and it keeps saying it is -- this ought to be a no-brainer.