Baltimore Entrepreneurs Get Boost From U.S. Commerce Dept.

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Attention all entrepreneurs. A major financial boost for people interested in owning a small business in the Baltimore area.

Pat Warren has more on hundreds of thousands of dollars available, and the link to a legendary local business.

From small beginnings, Parks Sausages in Northwest Baltimore became the first African American owned company in the country to go public--the largest in Baltimore, and with a most memorable slogan.

And more Parks Sausages-like companies for Baltimore, too, please--the aim of a federal grant to open a center for entrepreneurs, named for Parks co-founder, the late Ray Haysbert.

"And there's no better role model. So it's fitting that it's being named for him. No better role model... As a community leader, as someone who started a business small and then took it to great heights," said U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, (D) 3rd Congressional District.

The center will help people clear some of the same obstacles Haysbert recounted shortly before his death.

"Some of them still exist today. The same obstacles. Number one--lack of access to capital," he said.

The Department of Commerce is in partnership with the Urban League.

"Success will mean that we've trained entrepreneurs. If we encourage individuals to start with their own businesses," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

The center will be opening soon.

You can get more information from the Urban League.

The program is expected to generate $1 million in contracting and bonding opportunities.