An arts and design College and dorm, Charter Middle/High School and business accelerator: Located in downtown Detroit, MI, The Argonaut project converted a historic GM building into a 760,000 sq. ft. mixed-use educational facility. The College of Creative Studies’ expansion campus features educational facilities for undergraduate and graduate programs, residential facilities for up to 300 students and an arts and design middle and high school serving approximately 900 students annually. The project achieves LEED Certification for Existing Buildings, incorporates sustainability features, and may incorporate alternative energy generation once construction is complete. Six NMTC allocatees were involved in the transaction to overcome long-standing development hurdles. (NNMF NMTCs: $7.5 million)
CDE: National New Markets Fund
American SprialWeld Pipe Co.
The project involves the new construction and equipping of a $62.8M, 275,000 SF spiral welded pipe manufacturing plant in rural Paris, Texas. The project will create 150 full time jobs with average starting wages for production employees of $46,000 in addition to full benefits.
Flex-N-Gate
Flex-N-Gate Group (“FNG”), owned by American entrepreneur, Shahid Khan, is constructing a new 494,000 sq. ft. advanced manufacturing facility in Detroit, Michigan (the “Project”). Minority-sponsored FNG is a global automotive component manufacturer that supplies original equipment vehicle manufacturers with critical systems, assemblies and components, including complex structural metal stampings, mechanical assemblies, advanced vehicle lighting systems and painted exterior and interior injection molded parts. The Project will be the largest auto supplier investment in the City in more than two decades and will initially provide world-class quality, time-sensitive components to Ford Motor Company. The Project’s operations will include stamping, welding, injection molding and assembly. Training will encompass advanced manufacturing skills that include robotics, lift truck operation, tool and die, equipment repair, quality control, statistical process control, and various manufacturing safety certifications.
Plaza Adelante
This multi-tenant nonprofit complex, formerly a warehouse, located in San Francisco’s Mission District is a one-stop center of financial, legal, health, childcare and supportive services for low-income residents. By sharing common space and operating resources, nonprofit tenants lower costs and eventually may become owners in the facility. (Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, Mission San Francisco Federal Credit Union, Central American Resource Center, Dolores Street Community Services, Mission Asset Fund, Mission Neighborhood Centers, Saint Peters Housing Committee, Caminos Pathways Learning Center, and Immigrant Legal Education Network) (NNMF NMTCs: $9 million). These are the impassioned hopes of MEDA for the reimagining of the ground floor space of Plaza Adelante. With this rethinking of the space, MEDA is implementing strategies of placekeeping of the Mission Street commercial corridor that has longed served as the lifeblood of the neighborhood. The goal is to keep this stretch a thriving district for families, with immigrant-owned small businesses, arts and cultural organizations, and nonprofits all having permanent homes in the Mission.
American Tubing Arkansas, LLC
New buildign/equipment for an exsiting manufacturer of air conditioning components: ATA was formed in 2015 and acquired equipment from American Tubing, Inc., a Springdale-based company founded in 1976 to manufacture and fabricate components for refrigeration, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), defense and automation products. The new Springdale plant will employ cutting-edge brazing technology that reduces the contamination between aluminum and copper. It will also enable the company to focus on transitioning its tubing from copper to aluminum, which is lighter and less susceptible to corrosion. This facility, located in TIF District and Local Economic Zone with 20.50% poverty, 70.51% AMI, and Unemployment 1.32x national average, is projected to increase headcount by approximately 100 people (highly minority based and majority Hispanic) over the next four years. (NNMF NMTCs: $10 million)
Swiss Krono
250,000-square-foot expansion on Swiss Krono’s existing Barnwell manufacturing facility. The expansion includes the construction of a new medium-density fiberboard (MDF) manufacturing line, ancillary wood yard, energy plant and waste treatment facilities, as well as the installation of a fourth laminate flooring line. With this expansion, the plant will produce laminate flooring, MDF, high-density fiberboard (HDF), laminated panels for the furniture industry and treated papers for use in laminate applications. Currently, the facility only produces laminate flooring and treated paper.
Prarie Dog Pet Products
Los Angeles-based National New Markets Fund, LLC closed $24 million in New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) funding for Prairie Dog Pet Products to launch a new Abilene manufacturing plant and corporate headquarters.
Gateway Marketplace
An open air retail mall located on Eight Mile Road in Detroit, MI, this project will construct a major retail center remediating a 36-acre Brownfield site at the Southeast corner of Woodward Avenue and Eight Mile Road in a severely distressed Detroit neighborhood. The anchor tenant will be a 214, 000 sq. ft. Meijer Super Center that will provide affordable groceries to local residents in a federally designated food desert with a poverty rate of 48% and median family income of less than 30% of the area’s median family income. This is the first major grocery store built in Detroit in 50 years and is bordered by several consecutive federally designated food deserts. A bus stop in the middle of the retail center will ensure available public transportation. (NNMF NMTCs: $14 million)
San Antonio Food Bank
The San Antonio Food Bank (SAFB), the 14th largest food bank in the country, serves 16 counties in Southwest Texas. The mission of SAFB is to fight hunger through food distribution, service programs, education, and advocacy. SAFB partners with more than 530 agencies to deliver food (45 million pounds in 2011) and services to 58,000 people per week.
SAFB operates 34 programs in six core areas: Food Distribution, Client Services, Nutrition and Health (including operating a 5.4 acre farm), Disaster Relief, Job Training and Placement, and Social Enterprises. SAFB is the most important source of food for emergency food providers in a region, in which 19% of the residents live in poverty. When the recession hit in 2008, the demand for SAFB’s food distribution drastically increased, and it expanded food distribution from 35 million pounds in 2009. Demand is to grow to an estimated 60 million pounds in 2014, a 71% overall increase. However, SAFB’s ability to meet this growing demand is constrained by its facility and storage capacity limitations, especially for fresh and healthy food.
To help meet this demand, the Texas Mezzanine Fund and National New Markets Fund provided $13 million and $14 million NMTC loans, respectively, to help finance a $28.3 million expansion project. This project will double the overall facility to 204,000 sq. ft., more than double food storage capacity, and triple the cold storage space available for healthy fresh and frozen foods. A new pavilion will be constructed for new community service programs and weekly farmer’s markets. SAFB will enhance its environmental stewardship by adding a wind turbine to supplement the existing rooftop solar panel array, triple its water catchment capacity, and incorporate gray water reuse for its farm from an adjacent food processing facility. Its pilot Workforce Development Initiative will receive designated client service space and expand staffing. The expansion project will help increase SAFB’s food distribution by 33%, including its ruralserving Mobile Pantry Program. Over the next 6-7 years, SAFB will expand its staff by an additional 105 employees, many likely filled by low-income workers.
Dream Center
The Dream Center, a volunteer-driven organization, currently serves over 40,000 people each month. Services and programs offered include residential rehabilitation programs for teens and adults, a shelter for victims of human trafficking, a transitional shelter for homeless families, mobile hunger relief and medical programs, and a foster care intervention outreach that works closely with Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services to keep families intact by delivering the required furnishings, clothing and food to assure that their homes meet DCFS standards. Educational development programs such as adult basic education, job skills training and life skills counseling to homeless families and individuals make it a vital community development resource. (NNMF NMTCs: $16.3 million)
