New Maine credit union to focus on small farms
Two finance professionals are planning to launch the Maine Harvest Credit Union, a credit union that will focus on helping small farms buy land and equipment.
The Bangor Daily News reported that the venture is being started by Sam May, a Rockport native and former managing director at US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, and Scott Budde, a former pension fund manager at New York-based TIAA-CREF who moved to Maine last year.
The credit union is expected to get a state charter within about two years, May and Budde said. After that, they said they expect the credit union to become sustainable within five years. The credit union’s goal is to reach $10 million to $15 million in deposits by its eighth year. It plans to serve members of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and the Maine Farmland Trust, which have a total of 1,000 agricultural producer members and 10,000 potential depositors.
May and Budde said they have conducted more than two years of research to determine the viability of the credit union, which will aim to lend mortgages between $100,000 and $500,000 and equipment loans between $5,000 and $50,000, along with season loans, to small farms.
The two will begin seeking nearly $1.4 million in grants for the credit union in January. When it launches, it will be Maine’s first new credit union in 25 years.
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