It was a well-researched idea, backed by an experienced businessman, and supported by an organization known for helping entrepreneurs create jobs, but even that wasn't enough to convince banks that a food processing plant in central Wisconsin was worth financing.

Instead, it took the work of investors, not-for-profits and federal and local governments to make Intevation Food Group a reality. More in Central Wisconsin Business

The 100,000-square-foot Plover factory will begin operations within a few months, hiring about 80 people in the first year to produce appetizers and specialty potato products.

Nearly a dozen banks rejected CAP Services' request for project financing because they were unwilling to take the risk, said Karl Pnazek, the not-for-profit's vice president.

In the last 10 years, CAP Services has helped establish and expand several businesses in central Wisconsin with its lease-purchase program, in which it builds or renovates a business, leases it to the owners for 10 years and then offers them the chance to buy it.

When Jay Arend, who started food processing company Celestial Farms, approached CAP last summer to do a lease-purchase project for Intevation, the organization hit a wall.

"They had it from July to October of 2008, and then they dropped out. The underwriters for the bank in Chicago said, 'If this deal goes bad, we don't want to own a building in Plover,'" Pnazek said.

The same happened at other banks until CAP Services approached United Farm Credit Services, which bought almost $6 million in bonds issued by CAP. The nonprofit then secured guarantees from a number of entities, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the village of Plover and M&I Bank, ensuring they would pay the loan if CAP didn't. The organization closed on the loan last month.

Arend and partner Tina Arend also had to put up $2 million to get the project started. Normally, they only would have had to invest $1 million for a project of such scope, Pnazek said, but the delay in securing financing made the extra funds necessary.

The $11.5 million project also received about $1 million in federal loans from Portage County, as well as funds from the village of Plover, a $600,000 grant from the Department of Commerce, and money from other investors, to help buy equipment.

Jay Arend said the project wouldn't have started if it weren't for the loans and investors, adding he's never faced a tougher financing process.

"The pendulum has swung so far back the other way that (the banks) just scrutinize everything you do," he said.

Pnazek said the project's financing problems are a telltale sign of a recession in which the banks are not helping restart the economy, even refusing to lend to a organization, like CAP, that has never defaulted on a loan. He said such obstacles are just one of many reasons CAP exists.

"The reality is someone has got to take the risk," he said.