The city of Des Moines approved a  $50,000 economic development  loan this month to Alliance Technologies  Inc. to help it proceed with a  $2.6 million expansion downtown.

Alliance’s expansion project is tied  to its purchase last fall of Computility in  Urbandale. Computility, which began as  a local company,was acquired just over  a year ago by Durham,N.C.-based Smart  Online Inc., which then decided to put  it up for sale. When Alliance was  approached about buying Computility,  it sought financial assistance on the  state and local levels, said Jim Brandl,  CEO of Alliance.

“Part of our process of acquiring  Computility is we went to the [Iowa]  Department of Economic Development  and made a case to them saying we  would like some assistance with this  acquisition because it would keep jobs  in Des Moines that were otherwise likely  to leave the state,” Brandl said.

The state of Iowa approved a  $125,000 loan from its Community Economic  Betterment Account in September.  Half of the interest-free loan is forgivable  if Alliance meets its goal of creating  25 high-paying jobs downtown by  September 2009. On Jan. 8, the city  approved a 10-year $50,000 no-interest  loan and the Polk County Board of  Supervisors has approved a $50,000  loan with the same repayment terms.

Brandl said Alliance has already hired  more than half of the workers toward  its goal of 25 new jobs, and a few additional  job offers are pending. When  Alliance folded Computility’s operations  into its own, it hired 14 of that  company’s employees and brought  them to its downtown offices. Brandl  expects to hire another 11 workers in  the near future to help with growth  from the acquisition.

“When Computility was owned by  Smart, they weren’t growing,” Brandl  said. “I think it was a little hard for an  out-of-state company to run the business.  But we’ve seen significant growth  since taking over the company.”

The purchase of Computility included  software that non-profit organizations  and associations use to manage  their membership data. This software is  generating new business for Alliance.  Before the acquisition, Alliance had a  similar program, but it was geared  toward large organizations.

In anticipation of expansion, the  company signed a lease for more office  space in Capital Square last year. That  space is now being used to accommodate  the new employees and will be  adequate to hold the additional workers  hired over the next year or two.

“Whenever you get support from the  city, the state and the county in the form  of this kind of assistance, it’s very, very  helpful,” Brandl said.”It says a great deal  about their desire to want to help companies  like Alliance bring good-paying  jobs and retain those jobs in Central  Iowa.”