Cozy Inn Benefits from PCDC Programs

It’s hard to imagine Holdrege without the delicious home-cooked meals at the Cozy Inn Café, but owner Pat Landrigan said without the Phelps County Development Corporation he wouldn’t be in business.

That’s one reason why he supports the renewal of the half-cent LB840 sales tax that Holdrege voters will decide upon via mail-in ballot by November 10.

“Any improvements we have made in this place – and the actual purchase – are all because of PCDC,” he said. “Otherwise, I don’t know if we’d exist.”

Landrigan said he purchased the Cozy Inn Café in 2006 and obtained a gap-financing low-interest loan through PCDC.

The loan was crucial to the success of the business because just a few months after he purchased the cafe, the ice storm of January 2007 hit. His restaurant was closed for several days due to lack of electricity.

“I was sweating bullets when that ice storm hit,” he said. “The extra funding helped us get through the ice storm.”

Landrigan paid off the PCDC loan within five years.

The PCDC loan that Landrigan obtained helps fill a gap between what a bank will loan and what a business needs to get started. A business can apply for up to 50 percent of the project cost (but not more than 10 percent of the loan fund). The interest rate is 4 percent or half of the bank’s interest rate. Once the loan is repaid, that interest money is then reinvested back into the loan fund for other local businesses.

The Cozy Inn also was awarded a business exterior enhancement grant that allowed Landrigan to purchase a new awning for his business, making it more attractive to the more than 6,000 vehicles that drive by his business each day on Highway 6 & 34.

For these reasons, Landrigan said he encourages voters to renew the half-cent sales tax.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m against taxes but sometimes they are necessary,” he said. “It’s nothing we’ll ever notice. For all the good it does, I don’t mind it.”

Voters have until November 10 to return their ballots to the Phelps County Clerk’s Office. They are asked to vote on a revised economic development plan and the renewal of the tax for another 15 years, which could generate more than $8 million for continued programs such as exterior enhancement grants, gap-financing loans and other economic development projects and incentives. Learn more at www.HoldregeLB840.com.

Written By Kristine Jacobson for PCDC