Joint venture aims to bring capital to rural health care

Stroudwater Associates, the nation’s leading source of strategic, operational, and financial strategy for rural, community and county-district owned hospitals, announced a joint venture with Greater Commercial Lending, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Greater Nevada Credit Union, to help rural health care businesses access USDA guaranteed loans.

The new partnership will be known as StroudwaterGCL Rural Healthcare Capital.

The joint venture combines Stroudwater Associates’ expertise in rural health care planning, financial improvement and strategy with Greater Commercial Lending’s expertise in USDA health care lending.

“Every day we fight alongside rural hospitals to help them identify opportunities to provide the best care for their communities, but access to affordable capital often stalls those high-impact projects,” Stroudwater Associates Board Chair Eric Shell said. “Previously, lenders avoided lending to rural health care because of perceived risk. With GCL as a partner, we can now help clients access capital with very attractive terms and diversify risk by bringing bonding capacity at a fraction of the cost to the community.”

Historically, rural hospitals and health systems had a hard time accessing capital at a fast and affordable rate. This new partnership will provide improved access to low-cost, credit-enhanced capital for funding high-impact rural health investment in new replacement facilities and renovations and expansions. Additionally, rural hospitals will have the option of refinancing existing debt to create savings and enable reinvestment of capital expense into operations.

“Stroudwater understands the impact we can make in rural communities by bringing Wall Street buying power to Main Street health care,” GCL Executive Vice President Jeremy Gilpin said. “Their mission has always been to level the playing field with strategy and operational expertise. Our partnership now brings the nation’s leading USDA lender and its capabilities to the table, leveling the playing field for accessing capital for rural hospitals and health systems.”

“Our vision is to reinvent rural health care,” Shell said. “The ability to invest in needed infrastructure with innovative and efficient facilities and reinvigorate these rural health systems with long-term investments will improve the health of the communities they serve.”