A Clear Vision for Growth: Dry Eye Center of Alabama Invests in Its Future

With growing patient demand and a vision for the future, Dry Eye Center of Alabama was ready to move from leased space into a permanent home. SBA 504 financing helped create a path forward.

For many small business owners, growth begins with a vision. Turning that vision into something tangible often requires the right relationships, the right resources and a financing strategy designed around the business's long-term goals.

For Dr. C. Derrick Franklin, that vision was Dry Eye Center of Alabama.

Founded in 2021, the Birmingham-area optometry practice was built from the ground up to address a growing need for comprehensive eye care and specialized treatment options. In just a few years, the practice grew to serve more than 9,000 patients from across Alabama and beyond.

That growth created an exciting opportunity: to give the practice a permanent home with the space, equipment and flexibility needed for its next chapter.

Building a Practice Around Specialized Care

Dry Eye Center of Alabama offers comprehensive adult and pediatric eye care while providing advanced services for patients with more complex needs. The practice specializes in dry eye treatment and specialty contact lens services for patients with conditions including keratoconus, corneal transplants and other corneal disorders.

The practice also offers services such as LipiFlow, intense pulsed light (IPL), vision therapy and a boutique-style optical experience. Today, Dr. Franklin practices alongside Dr. Allison McKelvey and Dr. Bonnie-Kim Schwertz, creating a team equipped to address a broad range of patient needs.

But the practice's growth isn't simply a story about adding services or seeing more patients. It is also a story about the experience those patients receive.

Patient testimonials repeatedly describe a warm, welcoming environment and a team that takes time to make patients feel comfortable. One patient shared that Dr. Franklin was the first of several doctors to give her mother hope in addressing her dry eye symptoms. Another described traveling from outside Birmingham because of the care her family receives from the practice.

That combination of specialized care and a patient-centered approach helped establish Dry Eye Center of Alabama as a growing presence in its market.

Eventually, that success created a new challenge.

When Growth Calls for More Space

As patient demand increased, Dr. Franklin began looking beyond the practice's leased facility.

Owning a permanent location could provide more than additional square footage. It offered the opportunity to create a facility around the way the practice actually operates today while providing room to accommodate its future growth.

Dr. Franklin identified a 5,860-square-foot medical office building in the Cahaba Heights area of Vestavia Hills. The highly visible location offered the opportunity to create a larger, customized home for the practice.

The approximately $2.32 million project included the acquisition of the property, renovations tailored to the practice's operational needs, specialized medical equipment and other related project costs.

It was a significant investment in the future of the business.

And like many major small business investments, bringing all of the pieces together required coordination among multiple parties.

Creating a Path Forward With SBA 504 Financing

Central State Bank worked with Alliance Capital Corporation to support the SBA 504 financing process for the project.

As a Lender Service Provider, Alliance provided SBA financing guidance, loan packaging support and financing coordination, helping facilitate the process among the parties involved.

SBA 504 financing can be an important tool for qualifying small businesses making investments in owner-occupied commercial real estate, facilities and certain long-term fixed assets. For an established and growing practice like Dry Eye Center of Alabama, it provided a financing framework that could support the move from leased space to a permanent facility.

Throughout the process, Alliance's role was grounded in what is at the heart of its approach to SBA financing: understanding the business owner's goals, coordinating the many details involved and working alongside participating financial institutions and CDC partners to help move the financing process forward.

For Dr. Franklin, the goal was clear. The practice needed a space capable of supporting both the business it had become and the business he envisioned for the future.

More Room to Serve. More Room to Grow.

The new facility provides Dry Eye Center of Alabama with significantly more space for patient care and day-to-day operations, including additional examination rooms, expanded office space and a larger optical boutique.

Just as importantly, the new location creates room for what comes next.

With a permanent facility designed around the practice's needs, Dry Eye Center of Alabama has greater capacity to serve patients, continue investing in advanced treatment options and pursue future growth initiatives.

The impact extends beyond the walls of the building.

Every growing small business is part of a larger community. When a medical practice expands, that growth can mean greater access to specialized care, additional capacity to serve patients and opportunities for continued investment in the people and communities around it.

That is the kind of business growth Alliance Capital Corporation is proud to support.

Supporting the Vision Behind Small Business Growth

At Alliance Capital, we believe SBA financing is about more than numbers on a page. Behind every financing request is a business owner with a goal: purchasing a building, expanding operations, acquiring equipment or creating greater stability for the future.

Our role is to listen to that vision and use our SBA experience to help participating lenders and their small business customers navigate the financing process.

The growth of Dry Eye Center of Alabama demonstrates what can happen when entrepreneurial vision, strong relationships and the right financing resources come together.

Dr. Franklin built a practice around providing exceptional care. As that practice grew, his vision grew with it. Today, its new home represents more than a real estate investment.

It represents the next chapter for a local business built to serve its community.

Considering a major investment in your business?

Alliance Capital Corporation provides SBA financing guidance, loan packaging support and financing coordination for business acquisitions, owner-occupied commercial real estate, equipment purchases and other eligible business needs. We work through participating financial institutions and CDC partners to help business owners and lenders navigate the SBA financing process.

Alliance Capital Corporation is a Lender Service Provider (LSP) and not a lender. We provide SBA financing guidance, loan packaging and coordination services through participating financial institutions and CDC partners. All financing approvals, underwriting decisions, rates and loan terms are determined by the participating lender.