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Steamboat Springs — For Steamboat Springs business owners Joe Armstrong and Harris Greene, a state loan was the key to taking their furniture showroom to a new level while securing the future of Mountain Mattress and Bedroom.

They used a low down payment and a fixed-rate loan from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority to make the move from a rented commercial space on Steamboat's west side to a larger commercial condominium, which they were able to purchase.

Mountain Mattress and Bedroom moved this month after five years in a leased space in Elk River Crossings (near Ace Hardware) to Loggers Lane commercial center, just a half mile to the east on U.S. Highway 40.

"Business at (Elk River Crossings) was fine. It was good," Armstrong said. "But it's like owning your own house. It was time for us to get our own place. And the shopping experience here is better for our customers."

Armstrong and Greene had been looking for their own place for some time. Ironically, they wound up buying a space represented by Ron Wendler, Armstrong's colleague (Armstrong also is a Realtor) at Colorado Group Realty.

The challenge for the two entrepreneurs in their mid-30s was affording the 30 percent typical down payment for commercial property.

They needed to come up with more than $160,000 for the down payment on their 3,000-square-foot condo priced at $540,000. Because they fund their inventory out of working capital rather than through a revolving loan from a bank, it was going to be tough, or as Armstrong put it: "That wasn't going to happen."

CHFA Loan Officer Rhonda Housden helped Armstrong and Greene initiate their loan. She understood their need to keep their down payment low and had the right loan product for them.

"A lot of these (commercial) borrowers are buying commercial condos for less than $750,000," she said. "That's the cutoff to 90 percent financing. It really helps them when they can conserve working capital."

She also was able to give the owners of Mountain Mattress a 20-year fixed-rate loan.

Housden said CFA has a significant presence in Steamboat, both in residential single-family lending and commercial lending.

She said the willingness of local banks to refer commercial clients to CHFA when they can't meet their needs makes it all work.

The local banks could try to keep the loans in their own portfolio, Housden said, but universally in Steamboat, they understand it's mutually beneficial to refer the loans to CHFA to help local businesses grow. The banks benefit by keeping the business's checking, and in many cases, revolving credit, in house.

Armstrong said his business banker at Alpine Bank referred him to CHFA.

"Aside from doing a lot of paperwork, it was a very smooth process," he said.

CHFA's mission in the commercial arena, Housden said, is to promote economic development across the state. Growing businesses increase employment, she said.

Greene said the move to the larger space at Loggers Lane has helped Mountain Mattress and Bedroom expand on its philosophical goals of providing a range of furniture for working families that is competitive with big-box furniture stores on Colorado's Front Range.

The store has more than bedroom furniture - including dining room tables and living room arrangements.

For the first time, Greene said, they can display rooms of furniture.

Armstrong said the move also has allowed them to provide customers with the instant gratification they seek. Previously, they were essentially a catalog showroom and customers had to wait, in some cases for weeks, to have their purchase delivered. Now, coupled with a larger warehouse, he said, they are able to deliver purchases to customers the next day.