Education

St. Augustine High School – Rigaud Wellness Center

August 13, 2025 by

New Orleans’ large population of African American Roman Catholics is yet another unusual characteristic distinguishing the Crescent City from other places in America. Catholics constitute a plurality of the city’s and region’s population, and their predominance has profoundly affected Greater New Orleans’ educational system. Historically far more affordable than most independent private day schools operating in the United States, New Orleans’ Catholic schools long educated great numbers of students hailing from all backgrounds, with working class pupils always comprising a large proportion of the total student body.

And yet as late as the mid-20^th century, an all-boys Catholic high school education was not available to young Black men of New Orleans. The founding of St. Augustine High School in 1951 extended to African American high school-aged young men of the city an opportunity for single-sex Catholic education that had long been afforded their white co-religionists.

“St. Aug” quickly developed a reputation for both academic and athletic excellence. In the past seventy years, the school has grown into one of the nation’s premier incubators of Black talent, with the nearly 10,000 graduates of its college preparatory curriculum having regularly notched accomplishments like earning admission to Ivy League institutions, rising to executive positions within Fortune 500 companies nationwide, and serving as political and community leaders in both New Orleans and across the country. Countless professional athletes are alumni, and the school’s famed marching band has for decades been a highlight of the Mardi Gras season.

The present-day campus consists of three components: the original classroom building (1951), a 1971 addition consisting of a gymnasium, locker rooms, a band rehearsal room, and offices for athletic staff and music instructors, and a 2005 addition consisting of a library, computer labs, a cafeteria dining hall, a chapel and residences for school faculty. The 1951 classroom building epitomizes the thoughtful spatial composition and judicious mixing of materials that underpinned successful essays in Midcentury Modern exterior design. Subsequent additions to the campus – the 1971 gymnasium and the 2005 building – have succeeded at keeping the 1951 building primary amidst the ensemble.

However, by 2020 the school’s facilities were in need of comprehensive modernization. In 2021, St. Augustine initiated its Strategic Facilities Plan to guide a $25 million effort to upgrade the school’s academic and athletic infrastructure.

Executing the plan without imperiling other priorities wasn’t easy. St. Augustine strives to admit young men on a need-blind basis, which is a stretch given the socioeconomic makeup of the student body. More than seven in ten students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, over one in three students qualify for federal Department of Education grants to pay for half their tuition, and more than seven in ten students receive some sort of need-based tuition aid. Resources redirected to supporting the facilities plan could not be easily replaced with tuition increases. A final hurdle appeared when construction contractors repairing Hurricane Ida damage failed to properly secure combustible materials in the gymnasium. On Thanksgiving Day 2021 a fire erupted, causing heavy damage to the school’s multipurpose 1971 gymnasium building.

In need of innovative funding options, St. Augustine hired Crescent Growth Capital in 2023 to source and structure New Markets Tax Credit and Louisiana State Historic Tax Credit equity to help fund the conversion of the 1971 gymnasium into the Rigaud Health and Wellness Center. Crescent Growth Capital structured a financing incorporating Federal and Louisiana State New Markets Tax Credits, achieving financial closing in July 2024.

Meanwhile, Crescent’s in-house historic preservation consulting capabilities were deployed to prepare a three-element Historic Preservation Certification Application, with the only condition attached to Part 2 approval being a change in the specified color of some exterior metal cladding. Part 3 approval was received in May 2025, and the resulting historic tax credits were monetized in August. Crescent realized over $3.6 million in net subsidy for St. Augustine’s $13.6 million project.

St. Joseph Abbey & Seminary College

February 20, 2025 by

The Catholic Benedictine Order dates to the late 5^th century A.D. Called upon by New Orleans Archbishop Francis Janssens to found a seminary capable of supporting the development of a clergy native to the region, the Benedictines established St. Joseph Preparatory Seminary in 1891. The institution’s initial site near Pontchatoula eventually proved to be unsatisfactory, so St. Joseph relocated in 1902 to a 1,200-acre tract near Covington, LA. Located on the Northshore, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, St. Joseph remains there to this day.

The earliest surviving buildings on the campus date to 1909, when a large, three-story monastery/seminary and a detached one-story refectory (dining hall) were completed to a design by Benedictine Father Gregory Uhlenbrock, who had trained as an architect in his native Germany. New Orleans architect Theodore Brune designed the Romanesque-style abbey church, completed in 1932; stunning interior murals were added in the late 1940s to these historic buildings, executed by Benedictine Father Gregory DeWit, with the assistance of Swiss native Milo Piuz.

The continued growth of the seminary in the postwar period prompted the construction of an entirely new complex, a multi-building Miesian effort designed by the New Orleans architecture firm Lawrence and Saunders and inaugurated in 1960. The firm also designed a retreat house for laypersons, completed in 1964. In 1969 the seminary received accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools, and St. Joseph Abbey and Seminary College came into being.

On the night of March 11, 2016, St. Joseph’s fine campus was inundated by over two feet of floodwaters when the Bogue Falaya River overflowed its banks, flooding fourteen buildings. In the wake of this disaster, Crescent Growth Capital was hired to pursue Louisiana Historic Tax Credits on behalf of the abbey.

Over the next nine years, Crescent deployed both in-house historic preservation consulting and tax credit monetization capabilities to subsidize the rehabilitation of seven of the nine principal buildings on campus, including pre-World War II examples (monastery, refectory, abbey church) and Midcentury Modern designs (Benet, Savio and Vianney Halls, Retreat House).

Upon its accomplishing, in February 2025, the fourth tax credit monetization and delivery of sale proceeds to St. Joseph, Crescent had successfully leveraged over $28 million of Qualified Rehabilitation Expenditures to generate nearly $5.7 million in tax-free sale proceeds for St. Joseph Abbey and Seminary College.

West Las Vegas Library

April 5, 2024 by

Las Vegas-Clark County Library District (LVCCLD) is planning a new facility to serve the severely distressed West Las Vegas neighborhood. The neighborhood is deeply impoverished; more than four out of ten households earn less than $25,000 a year, and nearly half of all households with children live in poverty. Six of the seven census tracts to be served by the new library are severely distressed. (The census tract that will host the library possesses a poverty rate of 55.1% and a household median income amounting to not even one-third of the region’s figure.) Over 75% of the population within the library’s service area is non-white, and with fewer than 1 in 10 of those over 25 years old having earned college degrees, overall educational attainment is low. West Las Vegas is also considered to be the most unsafe neighborhood in the city, with violent crime rates over 700% higher than the U.S. average. The neighborhood is crying out for a well-resourced, broad-based intervention.

The new West Las Vegas library will devote no more than 15% of its interior square footage to book stacks. Rather, libraries today are “services-centric” opportunity hubs. To unlock the human development potential of its highly-disadvantaged service area, the new library will focus on four areas: Business & Career Services/Workforce Development (Employ NV Career Hub), Family Learning, School Support (children & teens), and Social Services & Healthcare (in partnership with Intermountain Healthcare & the Southern Nevada Health District). 21^st century skill sets will be taught, including Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Creativity and Innovation, Communication and Collaboration, Visual Literacy, Media Literacy, Entrepreneurial Literacy and Global Awareness. This will leverage the library system’s mature programming capacity: Over 1,000 programs per year will be offered, addressing topics such as early childhood and parenting education, media production within dedicated makerspace labs, culinary and nutrition programs, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) projects, and English language, high school diploma, and citizenship instruction.

In March of 2024, in partnership with Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institutions, Prestamos CDFI, Accion Opportunity Fund, and Chase Bank, Crescent closed on a $33.5M Federal NMTC financing to construct a 40,000 SF library – more than twice the size of the library currently serving the neighborhood – will support this within Project-Based Learning Spaces, including an Innovation Lab, Youth Technology Area & Multimedia Area (A/V Studios, Green Room, Editing Suite, Music Room), Children’s Collection & Story Time Space, Tween Area, Teen Area, Adult Learning Classroom, Adult Learning Lab, Employ NV Career Hub, Business Center, Computer Lab, Conference Room and Event Spaces (with a kitchen), Tech Area Flex Space, Quiet Room, and Study Booths.

The library will engage in four key areas: Business & Career Services/Workforce Development, Family Learning, School Support, and Social Services & Healthcare.

By combining cutting-edge programming, experienced outside partners, state-of-the-art infrastructure and sympathetic design, the new facility will catalyze transformative improvement in educational and social outcomes for its users.

Approximately 22,000 people will be served annually by the services provided by the new branch, and 250 jobs will result from its construction and operation.

University of the Incarnate Word – Dubuis Hall

November 24, 2023 by

Present in Texas since 1867, the Catholic Order of the Incarnate Word purchased in 1897 the 283-acre estate of the late Colonel George Brackenridge, located in San Antonio at the present-day intersection of Broadway and E. Hildebrand. By 1909 “Incarnate Word College” enrolled 125 young women. Accelerating enrollment growth demanded the construction of a dedicated dormitory building, and the Collegiate Gothic-style Dubuis Hall was completed in 1929. Coeducational enrollment began in 1971, and the college was renamed the University of the Incarnate Word in 1996.

Desiring to reposition the never-renovated residence hall as a “freshman dormitory” designed to encourage the development of esprit de corps among incoming college classes, the university approached Crescent Growth Capital once again to determine whether tax credits could allow for a significant subsidy to be derived, to offset the $10 million project cost.

In April 2020, Crescent was hired on a contingent fee-basis to qualify Dubuis Hall for Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credits and monetize the resulting credit award on behalf of UIW. A twin-track process was necessary to accomplish this: 1) Nominate Dubuis Hall to the National Register of Historic Places and 2) Prepare and submit the Texas state historic preservation certification application (Parts A, B and C).

Crescent’s in-house historic preservation specialist prepared a four-element Historic Preservation Certification Application (including multiple Part B supplements) over a two-and-a-half-year period, as well as supervising the parallel effort undertaken to individually list Dubuis Hall on the National Register of Historic Places. Subsequent to its National Register listing on May 30, 2023, Crescent received Part C approval from the Texas Historical Commission on June 20, 2023. A lengthy monetization process developed, with Crescent successfully navigating numerous delays to convey net sale proceeds of approximately $2 million to the university in November 2023, representing the fourth discrete UIW capital project for which Crescent has arranged a sizeable subsidy.

Hope Center

October 31, 2023 by

SA Hope Center began over 30 years ago as a benevolence ministry of Oak Hills Church. The SA Hope Center became a 501c3 nonprofit organization in 2001 and moved to its current location in the Westside on 321 N. General McMullen Drive in 2005. In 2014, the SA Hope Center’s program model took a shift from a food pantry program to a multi-faceted social service agency.

In 2014, SA Hope Center’s program model took a shift from a food pantry program to a multi-faceted social service agency that addresses the root causes of poverty to help the community become holistically sustainable.

The SA Hope Center has been serving the community on its westside campus in a donated 40+ year old portable buildings previously used for other purposes. These buildings have been “well-loved” and have served countless thousands over the past 16 years, but are currently falling apart and must be replaced.

In October of 2023, in partnership with PeopleFund Advisors and Capital One Bank, Crescent closed on a $8.0M Federal NMTC financing to construct the new Westside campus, which greatly expands SA Hope Center’s ability to serve the community in their greatest times of need, highlights of which are as follows:

400% increased capacity to provide transformational classes such as workforce training, financial literacy, and Parent University.
190% increased capacity to provide one-on-one case management services to an estimated additional 750 households annually.
New counseling room to provide clinical and spiritual counseling services.
Kids Club to fill a major gap in programming to ensure parents can focus on gaining new skills while children benefit from social, emotional, and educational programs.
Renovated food and clothing services building doubling capacity to provide services and adding climate-controlled storage and a new loading dock.
Covered interior courtyards
400% increase in administrative and support staff offices
2 new meeting spaces for visitors, meetings, and overflow programming.

SA Hope Center’s new facility plans on creating 14 jobs during the entirety of the NMTC Compliance Period, 100% of which pay above the living wage rate for Bexar County, Texas, and 100% of which that will offer benefits.

Allen University – Good Samaritan-Waverly

July 21, 2023 by

The mid-20^th century Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital building represents the culmination of the efforts of Columbia’s Black residents to establish modern healthcare facilities amidst the Jim Crow system of segregation prevailing in South Carolina before the advent of the modern Civil Rights Movement. The long-anticipated fruit of the 1938 merger of the city’s Waverly and Good Samaritan Hospitals, the present building was completed as a state-of-the-art facility in 1952 and included operating rooms, x-ray equipment, fifty beds, and a nurse training facility.

Despite the hospital’s comprehensive suite of services, operating margins were tight, due to a high debt load and persistently low reimbursement rates for care. In the wake of desegregation, Richland County completed a new, racially-integrated general hospital, which prompted the closure of Good Samaritan-Waverly in 1973.

The shuttered hospital was acquired in 1987 by Allen University, an HBCU founded in 1870 whose main campus is across the street. A succession of plans were considered over the years, and in 2008 the building was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Subsequent to the appointment of President Ernest McNealey, in late 2017, plans began to coalesce around an adaptive re-use for the hospital. Fundraising commenced, but by the end of 2019 a significant gap remained.

In August of 2020, Crescent Growth Capital was hired to provide historic preservation consulting and tax credit arranger services on a contingent fee basis. Crescent authored the Historic Preservation Certification Application for South Carolina State Historic Tax Credits and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits, successfully advancing an argument to justify the corner addition proposed for the project by pointing to the mid-block siting of the hospital at the time of its completion.

From a structuring standpoint, as tax credit arranger Crescent sourced $12 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation authority, combined the resulting subsidy with federal and state historic tax credits, and took advantage of the South Carolina Abandoned Building Tax Credit to bring over $4 million in bottom-line benefit to the project.

In 2023, Allen University inaugurated the Waverly-Clyburn Building, within the original hospital, along with the Boeing Center auditorium, constructed as an addition. Building uses include a home for Allen’s newly-established school of education, for teacher training; a permanent home for the Institute for Civility; a newly-established South Carolina African-American Hall of Fame; and a new home for the university’s seminary.

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