CRFUSA | New Markets Tax Credit Coalition

Robin Hood – KIPP NYC College Prep

Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is a national network of college preparatory public charter schools. These open-enrollment schools have proven to allow low-income community students to excel academically and later enjoy success in college and in life. KIPP NYC College Prep currently lacks a home and has been forced to move twice in two years. Fortunately, the Robin Hood Foundation has partnered with the New York City Department of Education to develop facilities for three high-performing charter school networks in New York City. KIPP NYC College Prep will be the second school to benefit from this unique partnership, finding a permanent home in a new campus in the Bronx. The 132,500 square foot facility will be a new, public college preparatory that will annually accommodate 1,000 students in grades 9 through 12. A total of $76.5 million in NMTC financing will help provide the school substantial savings through below market rent, allowing KIPP NYC to continue providing its students with a comprehensive college prep experience. The facility will include three science labs, two science “flex” rooms, a technology lab, music studio, art studio, dance studio and 35 classrooms. The students, 80% of whom are expected to come from low-income communities, will benefit from a rigorous academic curriculum. The project will be LEED certified and is expected to create approximately 245 construction jobs and 90 permanent faculty and staff jobs as the school reaches capacity. Slated to open in the Fall term of 2013, KIPP NYC College Prep will have the solid foundation to succeed in its mission to help close the achievement gap in New York City.

Honeywell International, Inc.

The project, located on a 57-acre site, is the design, procurement, construction and startup of a new facility to produce a low-global-warming blowing agent and propellant (technical name – 1234ze) used in insulation and aerosols. The project’s environmental benefits include: ultra-low global warming potential, zero ozone depletion potential and a near drop-in replacement of R-134a. 1234ze has been accepted for use and sale in foam and aerosols by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It is also currently used in Europe and Japan, with the majority of demand coming from Europe. As a significant quality job creation and retention project, it was greatly supported by state and local governments, receiving state and local commitments through the Industrial Tax Exemption, Retention and Modernization Program and Quality Jobs Program. Honeywell’s Baton Rouge facility was built in 1945 and continues to serve as one of its main manufacturing sites for its specialty materials business. Products made at the facility are shipped to customers around the world.

Coffee Manufacturer MN

Business loan to allow a coffee roasting company to expand.

Banyan

Located in one of the most economically challenged neighborhoods in Minneapolis, Banyan Community works to transform lives by developing youth, strengthening families, and creating community in an area struggling with drugs, gangs and grinding poverty. Banyan reaches more than 1,275 people a year through a combination of neighborhood block clubs and youth/ family programming. Of the more than 1,600 families in the neighborhood, 82% are people of color and 83% of Banyan youth are African American or Latino. Forty-six percent of all children live in poverty in the portion of the Minneapolis’ Phillips Neighborhood that Banyan serves. Since founder Joani Essenberg launched Banyan in her house in 1990, it has grown to be a national model for building a community from the inside out. In 2000, Banyan began leasing a 9,000 square foot community center, where it thrived for the next 15 years. A short-term lease, combined with a need to expand services and eliminate a waiting list of 100 youth, led to a desire to find a place of their own to serve as a community anchor for future generations of families. While they were able to raise $4.7 million to build a new facility, they still faced of $2.3 million gap to be able to complete the $7 million project. Due to the short-term nature of their existing lease, a delay for an indefinite period of time because an inability to access capital could have meant a disruption to the programs that were vital to the community. Banyan Center identified the NMTC as a way to fill the gap in financing. CRF was able to provide $6.7 million in NMTC financing, with Chase Community, LLC as the investor (a subsidiary of Chase Bank). Without the NMTC, the project could not have moved forward. With NMTC financing, Banyan Center was able to build a 31,000 square foot facility that includes: study rooms for high schoolers, elementary and middle school space, laundry facilities for busy families, community classrooms, a gymnasium, computer lab, shared dinning space, commercial kitchen and space to add a pre-school. A new building doubled Banyan’s capacity to serve young people and eliminated the 100 person the waiting list. The new facility will bring increased stability to families and youth who connect with Banyan, along with Banyan’s staff, all 13 of which reside in the neighborhood and have deep roots in the community. Banyan expects to add more than 15 new permanent full-time positions, all providing living wages, and the project also generated 75 temporary construction jobs. Thanks to the new center, Banyan can now serve 250 students with its after school programs, 94% of which are eligible for free and reduced lunch.

Farwest Steel

Farwest Steel Corporation is a leading processor, fabricator and distributor of carbon steel products in the Western United States. As a critical step in its continued growth, the company was looking to increase its steel fabrication services and consolidate some of its other operational locations into a new, centralized facility. Development of a new, 353,000 square foot plant allowed Farwest to add a cut-to-length steel coil processing line to provide flat steel stock for distribution and custom fabrication. Because the project served as a lynchpin for the City of Vancouver’s economic development efforts, the Port of Vancouver undertook $400,000 of infrastructure improvements to the site, and the City itself provided tax incentives that effectively lowered construction costs by 8%.

GST Power Service Group

Rocky Mountain Innosphere (RMI) is a high-tech business incubator for biotech start-ups and entrepreneurs. Located in Fort Collins, Colorado, RMI provides these startup companies with assistance raising capital, discounted professional services, and educational and networking opportunities for realizing business success.

Accurate Box

This project provided financing for Accurate Box, a manufacturer of boxes and a family, women-owned business with a commitment to one of the poorest communities in NJ

Mile High United Way

The project included the construction of a 3-story, 63,000 sq. ft. building that would serve as the headquarters of the Mile High United Way, located in Denver, Colorado.

Houston Food Bank

This project involved the construction of a warehouse for Houston Food Bank, a freezer/distribution facility. Houston Food Bank distributes more than 46 million pounds of food annually through nearly 572 hunger-relief agencies in Houston and the surrounding 18 counties in southeast Texas. The new facility more than quadruples their original food storage space from 73,000 sq. ft. to 320,000 sq. ft. allowing them to increase Houston Food Bank’s food distribution by 120,000 pounds. The increased storage capacity will help the Food Bank feed 137,000 families per week. In addition to maintaining a full-time staff, the Food Bank also receives assistance from over 450 volunteers on a daily basis.

Continental Tire

NMTC equity allowed Continental Tire to expand their North American operations in the United States, rather than in another part of North America or South America. The project includes the development of a 1 million sq. ft. truck tire manufacturing facility that will be one of the most environmentally sustainable tire production plants in the world. The design incorporates pollution control and monitoring systems to eliminate the use of harmful solvents in the majority of the production process and reduces energy consumption through innovative heat recovery and energy reuse technology. The facility is located in a low-income neighborhood with an unemployment rate 1.53 times the national average.