Disaster Relief | New Markets Tax Credit Coalition

Para La Naturaleza

Investor: Capital One, N.A. Para la Naturaleza (PLN) is a leader in environmental conservation and historic preservation in the islands of Puerto Rico. The Project sought to utilize NMTCs to support program expansion and renewable energy improvements to visitor and nonprofit-run community centers that provide areas with reliable and sustainable forms of electricity and water. PLN was also able to form Hábitat, a ecological and community recovery program that integrates habitat reforestation, endemic and native species education, volunteerism, support to agro-ecological farmers, ecotourism activities and employment, and citizen science to analyze and document ecological advancements.

Mar-Jac Poultry AL

Mar-Jac is a fully integrated poultry production company operating in GA, AL, and MS. Mar-Jac was established in 1954 and has been supplying high quality poultry products ever since. Mar-Jac ships poultry products worldwide with an emphasis on the domestic food service industry. The Company has constructed a feed mill facility in Phil Campbell, AL – a rural low-income community that was devastated by an EF-5 tornado in 2011 that killed 27 local residents. The Project supports the local community’s continuing efforts of rebuilding Phil Campbell. The $35 million investment in the Project has already spawned additional company investment in the form of a $25 million hatchery built by Mar-Jac, located within a mile of the feed mill. The Project is strengthening the local trucking industry as it requires more than 150 truckloads per day and helps the community diversify its economic base. The new feed mill in Phil Campbell, AL (Appalachian Regional Commission Service Area) is located in the middle of Mar-Jac’s network of grower houses to economize the feed delivery. 200 additional houses will need to be constructed by approximately 40 new growers. The average investment by each grower is $500,000. The new growers and existing growers are supplied chicks from Mar-Jac hatchery being concurrently constructed in that community. The mill will produce more than 10,000 tons of poultry feeds per week. This level of production not only supports local/regional farmers who grow and supply various feed ingredients such as corn and soy beans, but it also provides local/regional poultry farmers with optimal nutritional formula for healthy growth of chickens.

YMCA Belle Chasse

New YMCA in an areas severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Romark Global Pharma

Romark Global Pharma, LLC (Romark) is rehabilitating a former warehouse into a 40,000 SF pharmaceutical manufacturing plant where it will produce Alinia, a prescription drug that treats illnesses caused by Crypotsporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia. + Romark has developed an innovative flu vaccine, will use the QLICIs to complete the renovation and expansion of a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility. This project will contribute to disaster relief efforts following Hurricane Maria.

West Virginia Great Barrel Company

WVGBC was founded to create quality jobs and grow a new industry utilizing available natural resources and human capital in Greenbrier and Monroe Counties to continue recovery efforts in response to the 2016 floods that devastated the region. WVGBC is developing a 112,746 SF, state of the art cooperage that will produce high quality barrels for distilling bourbon, whisky and rye using Appalachian white oak, a native resource to WV. The barrels will be sold to distillers in and outside the state of WV. A stave mill will supply the cooperage and is located about 20 miles away. The mill, 55% owned by WVGBC, also produces wood flooring. WV has historically been underserved by the NMTC program.

Vanport Square

The Albina Neighborhood of NE Portland has long been one of the city’s most economically distressed. Dating back to 1948 when many of today’s Albina Neighborhood residents and their forebears were displaced from Vanport City due to a devastating flood, the community in NE has faced a lack of community services and employment opportunities. A corner on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which included the historic Marco Industrial Building, had been identified as a critical focal point for the area’s economic revitalization, but efforts to redevelop this vacant property over a decade had been unsuccessful. The 40,000 square foot, LEED Gold 17-unit Vanport Square mixed-use development is part of the solution. It includes office, retail and restaurant space targeted specifically for the relocation and expansion of locally owned small businesses. The development offers a diverse mix of services to the neighborhood. Key to the financing goals of this project was New Markets Tax Credits that enabled a unique business condominium structure. The tax credits directly benefit the business owners by allowing them to purchase their spaces with affordable loans.

Delta Memorial Hospital

The Delta Memorial Hospital, based in Dumas, Arkansas, has a long history of providing quality health care services to residents living in rural communities, throughout the Arkansas Delta. Over time, local leaders recognized the challenges facing their small, not-for-profit hospital: facilities were outdated, cutting-edge equipment was lacking, and patient capacity needed to be increased. Without major improvements in these areas, the hospital would have to close. Since the next nearest medical facility is more than 45 miles away, closing the hospital would have been devastating to this distressed community, marked by a 23% poverty rate and 12.5% unemployment rate. Despite the area’s economic hardships, the community rallied to keep the Dumas hospital and passed a $9.9 million bond measure to help pay for an upgraded building and medical equipment. Construction began in 2005, but the $9.9 million was not enough to complete the project, and the hospital faced a $2.5 million financing gap. That’s when community leaders and local bankers called on Hope Enterprise Corporation (HEC), a local community development entity, which provided $2.5 million in NMTC financing to complete the project. When the new hospital opened its doors in 2006, patients had access to new facilities, the latest in medical equipment, and much-improved specialty clinics. Evidence of the importance of Delta Memorial Hospital came soon after its re-opening when a tornado ripped through Dumas, laying waste to much of the town. Injured residents were rushed to Delta Memorial Hospital’s new emergency room for treatment, which remained in full operation thanks to new back-up generators. The hospital also provided critical communication links when other communications systems failed. CEO of Delta Memorial Hospital, Jim Fairchild recalls, “I can tell you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, if it were not for the new medical facilities and equipment at Delta Memorial Hospital, we would have had a much greater tragedy that day.” The success of the Hospital continued. In 2007, Delta Memorial Hospital developed Delta Medical Supply to address the medical supply and equipment needs of area residents. It also developed a hospital-owned group medical practice, Delta Health Services, to address the primary health care needs of area residents.

Make it Right Foundation

Financial counseling, solar installation, Buildling of green affordable residential housing to replace devastated homes from Hurricane Katrina, for nonprofit provider of green housing research: Developer financing for the Make It Right Foundation (MIR). Founded in 2007 by actor Brad Pitt, MIR is in the process of rebuilding 150 green houses in the 9th ward of New Orleans. When completed, it will be the greenest single family neighborhood in the United States.

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.

Gulf Coast Seafood and Co-op

Gulf Coast Agricultural and Seafood Co-Op (GCASC), is a non-profit first-of-its-kind facility turning seafood processing waste into fertilizer. The innovative LEED Gold plant is powered by self-generated methane biogas and solar energy. The Co-Op was formed by 23 local shrimp and crab companies having difficulty disposing of their seafood processing waste after their previous facility was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. As a result, Co-Op members were forced to pay high fees to haul waste 50 miles, burdening the Co-Op members, many of whom were also struggling due to the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill. The new facility provided Co-Op members with a cost effective and eco-friendly solution.