Coffee Café Bakery, a joint venture between four minority business owners, will renovate and fully equip an existing 31,150 sq. ft. warehouse into a baking facility located at 3528 Browns Mill Road in Atlanta, Georgia. The area has a poverty rate of 35% and an unemployment rate of almost 32%.
The project will feature state‐of‐the‐art bakery equipment in a production area, with full wash down capabilities, and equipment for mixing, proofing, frying, glazing, and finishing baked goods for 365‐day delivery of up to an estimated 31MM baked goods annually.
The facility will sell baked goods to over 170 local Dunki’n Donuts franchise stores, 50% of which are minority owned. At present, stores in the region purchase frozen products at higher cost. Using high‐tech production lines and equipment, the Project will make and deliver fresh baked goods daily. The fresh baked goods will increase product quality while reducing production costs and providing a better experience for the customers.
The project will create 109 full-time quality jobs that are highly accessible, with 98% of the new positions created to be filled by low‐income persons or residents of the low‐income community, with over 85% expected to be minority persons. 100% of the job openings will be made available to Atlanta’s workforce development agency, WorkSource Atlanta, which trains, supports, and places workers from the city’s lowest income neighborhoods. The facility is located on a main Atlanta bus route with a direct connection to the MARTA subway system. The NMTC financing will have a significant impact on the low-income, community and the minority population, with quality jobs being filled low-income persons. With increasingly expensive construction and equipment costs coupled with small operating margins, the ability to service debt and raise equity is limited and the project has a financing gap, which the NMTCs fill.
The New Markets Tax Credits were acquired by Truist Community Capital, LLC and advisory services were provided by Solaris Community Capital, LLC.