CRF Puts the Icing on Café Valley Bakery’s Bundt Cakes

CRF Puts the Icing on Café Valley Bakery’s Bundt Cakes

By Frank Altman

Rich, indulgent bundt cakes – I would have a hard time choosing between lemon, pumpkin cream cheese, chocolate, dipped strawberry and lemonade strawberry.

Fortunately for grocers, restaurants and convenience stores from coast to coast, they won’t have to choose – because CRF has just helped finance Café Valley Bakery’s new, 285,950 square-foot facility that will modernize and consolidate the company’s operations under one roof.

The financing provided by CRF and U.S. Bank will help boost revenues and provide good jobs for people in the Phoenix area. When the project is completed in November, they will have more space for production, new equipment and expanded warehouse and cold storage capabilities.

Built from the ground up, Café Valley’s new facility is expected to create 125 new full-time factory jobs, along with 121 full-time construction jobs between now and November. It will be an attractive commercial development in a blighted neighborhood, where nearly 16 percent of the residents live below the poverty line and the median family income is slightly more than half that of neighboring communities.

It’s the perfect example of how CRF helps create win-win situations for businesses and their communities. We did it utilizing the New Market Tax Program which is designed specifically to help established businesses in low-income communities keep their operations local, by financing real estate acquisitions, equipment purchases or operating expenses.

In this case, it’s more than a simple business expansion – Café Valley’s new facility will have a lasting impact on the people living in southwest Phoenix.

Of course, they’re still left with the delicious dilemma of which bundt cake to choose. . .