GSBDC Assists Simon’s Agency with New Facility Construction

Simon’s Agency, Inc. (SAI) was established in 1964 and became an S-corporation in 2009.  It is owned by Phillip Bova and has provided debt collection services to Central New York companies and organizations for over 50 years.  Since 2009, Simon’s has expanded its footprint to include much of the northeast as it continues its expansion throughout the United States.

In 2013, SAI outgrew their leased space of 3,300 sq. ft. at 3713 Brewerton Road in North Syracuse, NY and decided to construct a new building to house their businesses.  They purchased a one acre parcel off Taft Road in the Town of Clay and retained Rich and Gardner Construction Company, Inc. to build a 5,000 sq. ft. facility.   The new building has been designed to maximize operational workflow and accommodate the increased staffing anticipated as a result of several new contracts.

SAI uses state-of the-art technology to provide faster processing including database management, dialer systems, credit reporting trigger systems and data cleansing.  The combination of advanced technology, strong client relations and management’s expertise give them the tools to excel at recovering their client’s outstanding receivables.   They utilize a soft sell approach which ensures the highest recovery and remittance as their objective is to recover all the monies owed to their clients while maintaining the goodwill of that customer.

Since moving into their new location on February 14, 2015, Simon’s has added 16 positions Over the next two years they anticipate the need to hire as many as 30 additional positions.

According to Phillip Bova, “We have experienced an era of unprecedented growth for our company over the last few years.  When I took over Simon’s in 2001, we were a small company transposing records from Rolodexes and making calls on rotary telephones and now we’re a fully modernized call center utilizing the very best in modern technology.”  Adds Timothy Buckles, “We have a great team in place here on which we can continue to build our operation.  It won’t take much for us to be looking into building even more space to accommodate our growth.”

M&T Bank provided financing for 50% of the total project cost, with GSBDC providing 40% through the SBA 504 program with 20 year fixed rate financing.  This limited the borrower’s equity contribution to just 10%, making it an ideal financing program for a rapidly growing company such as SAI.