The Innovate Fund and DV Community Investment, with support from Valley National Bank, partnered with EO Companies to renovate a former 87,000 sq. ft. shopping center located in Abingdon, Virginia, into a multi-use regional childcare and workforce development center that serves the region’s youth.

Southwest Virginia faces a childcare crisis. Inadequate access to childcare financially constrains families and keeps parents out of the workforce. Additionally, the region’s businesses have urged local leaders to expand the availability of cradle to career competency-based career and technical programs within school curricula. EO Companies’ multi-use facility is the first of its kind and will begin to address these two challenges, which are holding back regional development.

Due to strong community support for the regionally transformative project, EO Companies was able to secure substantial grants and donations during its capital campaign. However, the firm was unable to raise the full $18.5 million necessary to complete the project. Without $12.5 million in NMTC financing, EO Companies would either have to divert funds away from its other programmatic needs or reduce the scale and scope of the project. Either option would have been detrimental to the community, weakening the impact of the project.

Within the newly renovated facility, the Career Commons provides 30,000 K-12 students from across the region with hands-on career simulation. The activities and curriculum align with the Virginia Department of Education’s 17 career clusters and help spur interest in manufacturing and STEM jobs. The facility will also host an early childhood education center that serves 300 children under 5 years old.

In addition to expanding access to workforce development and childcare, the project also generated 121 permanent FTE jobs.