United Fund Advisors | New Markets Tax Credit Coalition

Basketball City

The Basketball City project converts 63,000 square feet of warehouse space on Pier 36 in Manhattan’s Lower East Side into a basketball-focused recreational facility. In addition to to providing youth camps, clinics, and tournaments, the location will serve as home court for 28 New York City Public School Athletic League basketball teams. The facility itself will contain seven basketball courts, locker rooms and a special events area. Sustainable design components such as solar panels, composite wooden floors and energy-efficient lighting and insulation will be incorporated in the renovation of the existing space. The site will also a feature a waterfront esplanade open to the public, extensive landscaping, and space for parking. The project will be an integral piece of New York City’s East River Waterfront Esplanade Project. As part of the NMTC financing agreement between UFA and Basketball City, the 50 expected full-time positions to be created by the project will be filled by eligible low-income residents of the area sourced through a community board.

Talladega College

Talladega College will construct a new 45,780-square-foot student center and health clinic, which will include a bookstore, dining hall, convenience/grocery store, cafeteria, fitness center, student meeting and classroom space and an arena for intercollegiate athletics. The project will also provide event space (700 seats) to host campus graduations and convocations as well as community events and banquets.

New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute (NOCHI)

The New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute includes the renovation of a historic, five-story building, accessible by public transportation in downtown New Orleans that will provide no cost and low cost training to several hundred students annual through its Workforce Training Programs.

Orchestra of St. Lukes

Established in 1974, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) has a long tradition of supporting classical music education, performance, and artistry in New York City. The DiMenna Center for Classical Music will now provide a creative home for OSL as well as many other New York music organizations. The center occupies half of a six-story building on Manhattan’s west side and includes a chamber orchestra rehearsal hall, rehearsal rooms, an education center, recording room, music library, cafe, and lounge. The rehearsal center is serving NYC’s freelance musical community, local orchestras, choruses, visiting orchestras and chamber music groups. A great benefit of the project will be its ability to act as an arts education center serving thousands of NYC schoolchildren. The building is targeting a LEED Gold certification for sustainable building practices and is fully accessible to the public. In addition to providing the local Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen communities with exposure to classical music through open rehearsals and free concerts, the center is also available for selected community organizations when not in use.

Museum for African Art

The Museum for African Art has been increasing public understanding and appreciation of African arts and culture since 1984. The Museum is well known for its traveling exhibitions, public education programs, and unique store that offers authentic hand-made African crafts. After years of nomadic travel from one rented space to another, the Museum will realize a long-held dream of creating a permanent and appropriate home for the museum collection, which is currently warehoused in Long Island City. The Museum’s relocation efforts have garnered widespread support in its capital campaign and from New York State and New York City capital grant programs. The 75,000 SF facility will include gallery space featuring both traditional and contemporary African art, a library, a restaurant, a gift shop, two classrooms, and an African Discovery Hall. The development will also include 116 market-rate condominium units above the museum. As well being the first addition to Museum Mile in 50 years, the project is targeting LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council for its sustainable design features. It is anticipated that this new and vibrant community space will link Museum Mile with Harlem’s African, African-American and Latino communities and create numerous, new educational opportunities for residents of New York City and visitors.

Harlem Hospital Center

Since 1907, Harlem Hospital Center (HHC), one of the country’s largest acute-care and Level 1 Trauma Centers, has served residents of Central and West Harlem, Washington Heights and Inwood. As the largest employer in Central Harlem and one of the largest training centers for minority and female physicians in the United States, HHC is an important social, political and economic force within the community. NMTC financing was utilized to support the construction of a 195,000 square-foot diagnostic, treatment, critical care and emergency pavilion, and the renovation of certain existing facilities. The new Patient Pavilion, which houses HHC’s Emergency Department, has separate walk-in and ambulance entrances, state-of-the-art critical care and diagnostic units, and new fully equipped operating rooms. The renovation of the existing hospital space modernized HHC’s obstetrics and gynecology department, which had not been updated in 40 years. Construction of the Patient Pavilion and the upgrades made to the existing facility were critical for HHC to meet demand for increased patient services and to ensure HHC provides the highest quality of care.

City Point

The City Point project (City Point) is a three-phase development of a LEED Silver, 1.8 million gross-square-foot retail and residential complex located in downtown Brooklyn, New York. NMTC allocation was utilized in the Phase 2 of development to construct an approximately 649,000 gross-square-foot retail podium. Included in Phase 2 is an 18,000 square-foot, full-service grocery store that is managed by a local operator; and the Brooklyn Market, an 11,000 square-foot market hall that includes local food purveyors. Both provide fresh, healthy food in an area with a lack of grocery store and restaurant options. City Point received broad support from various levels of government as it greatly enhanced the revitalization of Downtown Brooklyn, an area the City of New York has targeted as a key area for economic stimulus. City Point implements major development objectives of the 2004 Downtown Brooklyn Plan and Mayor Bloomberg’s Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan, including affordable housing, street-scape improvements and high-quality design standards. City Point is also located in an established Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) zone, a program created by New York City’s Food Policy Task Force in order to provide financial incentives for doing business in communities underserved by grocery stores and fresh food options. City Point is committed to supporting the local minority workforce and low-income residents by targeting a large percentage of new, permanent jobs to be filled by persons who have an income that is below 200% of the poverty level within their residence zip code, and by hiring a portion of contractor and subcontractor positions to be filled by women and minority employees. Additionally, in Phase 3 of development approximately 647,000 gross-square-feet (240 residential housing units) will be available for rent, with 120 units set aside for low-income persons.

Loew’s Kings Theater

Loew’s Kings Theatre (‘Loew’s’) was built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1929. It closed in 1977 after falling into disrepair. The complete historic renovation of Loew’s 3,200-seat theater includes the expansion of the stage house and operational areas, and increasing the theater’s size from 68,000 square feet to approximately 89,000 square feet. The theater’s auditorium and foyer will be retained, restored, and modernized allowing Loew’s to host 200 to 250 performances a year which will include concerts, dance, theater, comedy and other live shows. Located in a low-income community and distressed census tract of Brooklyn, Loew’s is the largest indoor theater in Brooklyn and serves as both a cultural hub and catalyst for economic growth along Flatbush Avenue and throughout Central Brooklyn.

McKibbin Street Industrial Center

Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center (GMDC) is a not-for-profit real estate developer dedicated to the preservation and creation of permanent, affordable manufacturing space for small and medium-sized industrial firms. Having successfully completed five of these projects in north Brooklyn, GMDC identified a former furniture manufacturing facility in the East Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. An innovative usage of state and local business incentives would help finance the project. The 72,000 square feet McKibbin Street Industrial Center has preserved an historic building and provided 20 built-to-suit work spaces to light manufacturing and artisinal businesses at below-market lease rates. As well as bringing positive impact to the surrounding neighborhoods, the project allows these businesses to remain in New York City and employ low-income members of the city’s immigrant population with living wage jobs. GMDC has received recognition for its historic preservation efforts on the McKibbin project, most notably the 2009 New York State Historic Preservation Award and the 2009 Building Brooklyn Award in the Historic Preservation category from the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

Brooklyn Scholars School

The Brooklyn Scholars Charter School project brings a new K-8 charter school to an economically disadvantaged area of east New York. In Public School District #19, where the school is located, 41% of students are below proficiency in math and 60% are below proficiency in English language arts.The Brooklyn Scholars Charter School incorporates an educational system managed by National Heritage Academies, which manages another charter school in New York that was recently recognized by the New York State Education Department as a ‘high performing/gap closing’ school. The new school occupies the site of a former parochial school. The 58,700 SF two-story building is comprised of 27 classrooms, a gym, administrative offices and meeting space, and the rehabilitation includes the addition of energy efficiency measures. Brooklyn Scholars Charter School creates 55 new permanent teaching, administrative, and support jobs, and will provide quality education for up to 700 students.