SST Gets Incentive to Lease Joplin Facility

A $75,000 forgivable loan was enough in July to entice Systems & Services Technology Inc. of St. Joseph, Mo., into selecting Joplin, Mo., for a new 30,000-SF operations facility. Joplin is about an hour north of Bella Vista and three hours south of St. Joseph.

Joplin issued the loan to SST based on the firm’s commitment to create and maintain 100 or more new jobs during the next three years. The jobs also must carry hourly wages of $9.50-$11.50 for the loan to be forgiven.

SST, a nationally recognized loan servicing firm, was founded in 1997 and provides loan services for various lending institutions, finance companies and banks. It services more than 105,000 active automobile loans with balances of more than $1 billion.

Ed Clifford took over Aug. 1 as the new president and CEO of the Bentonville-Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce. He said Benton County cities recruit companies using the Advantage Arkansas program, which gives new firms tax breaks and a chance for low-interest loans for moving to Arkansas.

Clifford’s office recently used the program to recruit Rocket Software of Boston to open a five-person office in Bentonville. The specialized software manufacturer hopes to expand to 25 people within the next 18 months.

“Our big problems is not finding companies to come here,” Clifford said. “It’s staffing the businesses that we already have and the new ones. Our thrust has been on developing workers first so that we can go after companies.”