Talladega College is the state of Alabama’s oldest Historically Black College (“HBCU”). Formed in 1869, today Talladega College has full-time enrollment of nearly 1,200 students, 97% of whom are Pell-grant eligible, and approximately 85% are 1st generation college students.
For 150-years, Talladega has provided quality education to its students and service to its community despite having no student center facilities whatsoever. Talladega students currently have no place to congregate, no central location in which to hold student group meetings or routine events such as graduation ceremonies and dances. This is a significant disadvantage in recruitment, says President Hawkins: “on weekend nights, students have nowhere to go to unwind, and are forced to sit on the steps outside their dorm rooms.”
In the face of this significant disadvantage, Talladega’s enrollment has grown 250% since 2009. Unfortunately, the College’s housing facilities are inadequate to cope with the sheer size of the student body. As a result, Talladega was forced to spend more than $300,000 on hotel rooms for 100 students from 2014-2017.
In June of 2014, Talladega College engaged Crescent to pursue NMTCs in conjunction with its overall financing plan for a new student center and residence hall. The student center was designed to not only serve Talladega students, but also to address the myriad issues affecting the residents living in the surrounding census tract, which is designated as medically-underserved and a Food Desert; the student center offers a new cafeteria and health clinic, both of which are open to the public.
The residence hall will consist of space for 203 beds (102 rooms), inclusive of rooms for undergraduate students, RA’s (resident advisers), handicapped accessible rooms, a housing director, as well as common study areas and lounges.
Having already secured a commitment from the USDA Rural Development Community Facilities program, Crescent worked to secure a construction loan, an investor commitment along with NMTC allocation. In April 2018, Crescent and Talladega College closed on $20.0M of NMTCs, utilizing allocation provided by United Bank, National Community Fund, and Trustmark Bank, leveraging a NMTC equity investment made by PNC Bank. The Federal NMTC subsidy helped cover nearly $3 million overruns resulting from commodity price escalation in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. By covering this gap, the NMTC subsidy allows Talladega to create 46 new FTE jobs and to expand its work-release program with Childersburg Correctional Facility.