Schools | New Markets Tax Credit Coalition

Holy Cross School

The Project relocated the Holy Cross School following the destruction of its campus in Hurricane Katrina. The School has educated young men in the New Orleans community for over 125 years, carrying out this mission from its original campus in the Lower Ninth Ward. The original 16 acre campus was completely destroyed by flood waters. The School serves approximately 520 students in grades 5 through 12 and had essentially been operating in temporary quarters since the storm. The new campus had the support of the community, as evidenced in a Resolution of Support adopted by the Gentilly Neighborhood Association Presidents in November 2006. By July of 2007, the neighborhood was described by the Times-Picayune as “a pattern of skeletal residences broken only by the occasional empty lot or construction project”. The School was the first major investment to be made in the community since the storm. Several new campus buildings were completed in August 2009 in time for about 760 students to return to school with the library and administrative buildings to be completed shortly thereafter. The Project was made possible through the use of a combination of Federal and State New Markets Tax Credits.

Booker T. Washington

KIPP Booker T. Washington High School is the second high school in the KIPP New Orleans network of college-prep charter schools. The school has grown to serve students from grades 9 to 12 and provides high-quality charter seats for 930 students, 91% of whom are projected to be low- income and 25% special education, both higher than the average for New Orleans public schools. Hurricane Katrina irreparably damaged Booker T. Washington’s original facilities. As part of the post-Katrina overhaul of all New Orleans’ school facilities, the Recovery School District is preserving and refurbishing two parts of the historic Booker T. Washington building: the entrance and the 50,000 square-foot auditorium in which legends including Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie performed. The project also includes 150,000 square feet of new construction. The project would not have been possible without $20.25M of New Markets Tax Credit allocation from Civic Builders. The completed school facility is leased to KIPP New Orleans to host two schools in the KIPP New Orleans network: Booker T. Washington High School and Central City Academy Middle School.

The ReFresh Project

As part of an overall neighborhood vision for the Broad Street Commercial Corridor in New Orleans, the ReFresh Project is helping to drive revitalization. A former abandoned building will soon become a new space for businesses to operate, and for community groups and residents to engage and collaborate. Approximately 88 permanent and 61 temporary full time jobs will also be created. Chase originated an $8 million New Markets Tax Credit construction loan to support revitalization efforts for the corridor. Additional financing includes a $1 million loan from the City of New Orleans Fresh Food Retailers Initiative and $900,000 in the form of two loans from the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority. The building supports Firstline Charter Schools, Broad Community Connections, Whole Foods Market, Liberty’s Kitchen, and Tulane Unviersity.

New Settlement Community Center

Renovation of a former high school facility into a 24,000-square-foot state-of-the-art community center/K-12 school

Crossroads Charter Schools

Crossroads Academy of Kansas City opened a second campus, Quality Hill, for 186 students in grades K-3 during the 2016-2017 school year and eventually will serve 422 students in grades K-8. The new school is in a historic and formerly vacant office building in downtown Kansas City, preserving a neighborhood anchor institution. IFF closed on $4.8 million in bridge loans for buying and renovating the building, with plans to provide permanent financing next year. The bridge loan allowed the school to open on time while securing historic tax credits and capital campaign pledges. Previously, IFF made a loan to Crossroads to renovate its first campus.

Argonaut

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)

DC Prep 2

Redevelopment and expansion of a vacant 18,000 sq. ft. school building that formerly housed Our Lady of Perpetual Health Catholic School into a ‘state of the art’ 36,000 sq. ft. building to serve as the Anacostia campus of DC Prep.

Winters Building

The project entails the renovation of the Winters Building – a school and performing arts center that provides services to underserved inner-city youth. The project involved the construction of a completely new steel and concrete structure within the historic exterior walls. The improvements included performance theaters on the first and second floors, lower-level instructional space, all new building systems, restoration of the historic façade, and increased classroom/office space.

KIPP Jacksonville

The Knowledge Is Power Program (“KIPP”) charter schools is a national network of three, not-for-profit open enrollment charter schools with a renowned track record of preparing students from our nation’s most educationally undeserved communities for success in college and life. The overall project consisted of the redevelopment of a former greyhound racing track clubhouse into educational space for the eventual operation of three KIPP schools. Jacksonville Alliance for KIPP Schools, Inc. (“JAKS”) was gifted the site located at 1440 N. McDuff Road, Jacksonville, FL 32254 for the purpose of developing the KIPP schools and to lease the property to KIPP Jacksonville Schools, another recently-created, non -profit entity whose sole purpose is to build and manage the schools. The clubhouse was over 150,000 square feet in space, which is large enough to house three KIPP schools with a total of 37 classrooms. Plans for the fourth floor are pending. In total, approximately 1,180 students will be served through the renovations, which took place from January 2010 to November 2010. KIPP Impact Middle School opened in August 2010 and serves approximately 340 students. In subsequent years, a second middle school and an elementary school are planned to be opened in the building, which will serve 340 and 500 students, respectively. At full occupancy, the facility serves approximately 1,180 students from kindergarten through 7th grade.

Ron Clark Academy

The NMTC allocation will assist with the construction of the new 42,000-square-foot state-of-the-art Ryan Marshall Performing Arts Center, which will expand the existing school building both for student activities as well as for RCA’s teacher training programs. As a result, the school will be able to serve an additional 30 students annually and train an additional 2,500 teachers annually, increases which will help make the school 100 percent financially sustainable as well as subsidize tuition for students from households earning less than $30,000 annually. The $23 million expansion will also create seven new full-time positions.