Community Arts Stabilization Trust

San Francisco, CA (2020)

Community Arts Stabilization Trust

Arts, Community, Historic Rehabilitation, Mixed-use

NMTC financing supported the Community Arts Stabilization Trust, a nonprofit real estate development and holding company strictly for the arts.

Investment

NMTC Amount: $8,007,000
Total Project Cost: $9,000,000

IMPACT

25 FTE jobs
44 construction jobs
447 Minna provides below market rental space for Bay Area Arts organizations
10,200 sq. ft. of real estate

CDEs

San Francisco Community Investment Fund

Investor

Chase

Project Description

Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST) is a nonprofit real estate development and holding company strictly for the arts. CAST creates long-term/permanent solutions to acquire, develop, and manage affordable, safe spaces for arts and culture organizations in San Francisco and Oakland. In 2019, CAST became the owners of the historical 10,200 sq. ft. Dempster Building, located at 447 Minna Street, at the center of a mixed-use development site in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. In 2020 SFCIF provided a new market tax credit allocation of $8.007 million to CAST to help fund the transformation of 447 Minna into a community arts and cultural hub.

MAP

Address: 447 Minna Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

Census Tract: 6075017602

Voices from the Community

For community based economic development and nonprofit owned community facilities, this is a critical funding source that pays for up to 15-20% of project costs (after the expense of the tax credits). From YMCA youth centers and youth afterschool programs, to cultural facilities, such as Seattle’s Wing Luk Museum and San Francisco’s Jazz Center, important community assets would not exist without this important resource. The nationally recognized Ed Robert’s Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, CA, for example, would not exist with out NMTC. This is a critical funding source for the infrastructure of healthy low and mixed income communities. It works! Make it permanent and make it more efficient.