Smith Brothers of Berne Inc. manufactures, assembles, and sells residential furniture. Since their inception in 1926, the company has been family owned and operated in the town of Berne, Indiana; where the engineering, product development, building, upholstering, cleaning, and delivery of the furniture takes place. Smith Brothers will finance the construction, expansion and equipment for its furniture production facility. The manufacturing facility currently encompasses approximately 388,351 sq. ft. and the construction will increase the manufacturing space to approximately 488,000 sq. ft. Located in an area with an unemployment rate of 9.4% (1.19x the national average), the Project created 131 new, full-time jobs, retain 449 full-time jobs, and create 5 construction jobs. Over 50% of these newly-created and retained jobs have low barriers to entry will be readily available to low-income persons.