St. Louis veterans business center to close in April

The Veterans Business Resource Center, which provides small business training and counseling to military veterans, plans to shut down in April because its main source of funding has been cut.

The center in the Central West End is one of three veterans-geared locations in the nation that operate under The Veterans Corp. in Washington D.C., a non-profit organization established in 1999. Congress appropriates money to The Veterans Corp., which in turn, funds the centers. But leaders at the St. Louis and Flint, Mich., locations recently learned their funding for fiscal 2008 was scaled back. The third center, near Boston, did not receive any money.

The St. Louis-area office — opened in 2004 and the first of the three — received $140,000 through The Veterans Corp. in fiscal 2007, but that amount was reduced to $67,500 for this year, said executive director Patrick Heavey.

The center also receives private and corporate donations, but that money is not enough to keep operations afloat.

Heavey will announce the center’s closing in a press conference Tuesday morning.

From October 2005 through Dec. 31, the center’s employees have counseled 757 clients, provided training to more than 2,700 entrepreneurs and helped to create 142 businesses, Heavey said.