Non-profits

St. Ann Square

June 21, 2021 by

Sometimes a setback paves the way for a successful project. Affordable housing developer Providence Community Housing had approached Crescent Growth Capital to determine whether historic tax credit equity could subsidize its planned 53-unit, mixed-income Sacred Heart at St. Bernard housing development. The adaptive re-use of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church (1955) was to be teamed with new construction of an adjacent, four-story building. Unfortunately, the prescribed subdivision of the intact, historic church interior into multiple individual units could not, despite several creative design iterations suggested by Crescent, be squared with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. Providence ultimately completed the project, incorporating the former church and including Crescent’s suggested design refinements, but without an HTC subsidy.

Pleased with Crescent Growth Capital’s historic preservation consulting process, its disappointing outcome in that instance notwithstanding, Providence Community Housing was receptive when Crescent reached out in late 2017, in the wake of Providence receiving an award of $7.5 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credits. While Providence had not contemplated attempting to incorporate historic tax credit equity into the capital stack for the project in question, a housing development of 59 units for low-income seniors to be called St. Ann Square, Crescent suggested that both federal and state historic rehabilitation tax credits could indeed be secured.

St. Ann Square presented considerable complexity from an historic preservation consulting standpoint. The project would combine a rehabilitation of the historic St. Ann Church and School building (1924) and adjacent 19^th century structures – themselves the subject of a federal HPCA process which concluded successfully in 2002 – with the addition of two historic “shotgun” style dwellings sharing the square and the erection of a two-story, newly-constructed apartment building. The multiple historic buildings shared little to no functional relationship during their period of significance – all were contributing elements to the Esplanade Ridge National Register Historic District – which necessitated authoring six individual federal and state HPCAs.

Accordingly, Crescent’s in-house historic preservation specialist prepared and submitted no fewer than thirty-seven elements to six federal Historic Preservation Certification Applications over a three-and-a-half year period, also submitting Louisiana State HPCAs in conjunction with the federal application parts. Skillful navigation of the Secretary’s Standards was required, with particular work going into windows, exterior cladding, and the faithful conservation of remaining character-defining elements and intact interior spatial organization.

Part 3 approval for the final building was received on June 15, 2021, at which point some $4 million in federal and state historic tax credit equity had been generated to subsidize the completed $16.5 million St. Ann Square project.

CommCare Natchitoches

May 25, 2021 by

CommCare Corporation has owned and operated skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers throughout Louisiana since 1994 and is currently the largest non-profit nursing home owner in Louisiana.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Louisiana’s nursing homes were disproportionately impacted: in the first year of the pandemic, of the roughly 4,000 deaths in Louisiana, approximately 41% occurred in nursing homes. This was largely due to the average age of the facilities, as the older homes were built with more communal space, making viral transmission more prevalent.

CommCare learned that their Household modelled facilities fared surprisingly well during the pandemic, as they were built to provide an adequate buffer between each resident’s living space, thus limiting the airborne and contact-related spread of COVID-19.

Specifically, CommCare noted four primary benefits of to Household model:

Having a private room eliminates the potential for airborne spread of the virus from patient to patient in close living and sleeping quarters;
Private baths eliminates the sharing of toilets, sinks, tooth brush holders, paper dispensers, etc. – all items that are touched when using;
The household (itself at 25 to 30 residents per household) acts as a separate unit, with separate dining and entertainment areas within the building thereby eliminating social contact spread commonly found in traditional common dining or a common activities room buildings
Consistent staffing, which is only found in a household model, prevents staff from traveling around the entire building

These four lessons were central to the design of the new Natchitoches facility. In the midst of the pandemic, CommCare found that traditional construction funding was growing ever more expensive. So in October, 2020, CommCare engaged Crescent Growth Capital (“CGC”) to pursue a New Markets Tax Credit financing to subsidize the development cost for the new facility.

In May, 2021, CGC and CommCare closed on a $5 million Louisiana State and $16.5 million Federal NMTC financing, utilizing allocation provided by AMCREF and HRV. The project will provide vital nursing, therapy, and pharmacy services to residents of the surrounding low-income community of Natchitoches. The project will also provide a cafeteria with a healthy, nutritious menu approved by a licensed dietician. Residents, employees, family, and community members are all welcome to dine at the facility. The roughly $20M facility is expected to increase total employment by 55 FTE’s, 74% of which are expected to be minorities, with all the new positions having access to career training and advancement opportunities in an economically distressed area.

Shelter Ministries of Dallas – Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support

January 8, 2021 by

Established by Shelter Ministries of Dallas (“SMD”) in 1985, Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support (‘Genesis”) offers the most comprehensive domestic violence (“DV”) recovery program in Dallas including an Emergency Shelter, a Transitional Housing Facility that includes on-site schooling, daycare, and afterschool programming, and a non-residential Outreach Counseling Center where clients have access to clinical counseling facilitated by licensed mental health professionals, advocacy services offering representation in legal proceedings, and legal services provided by licensed attorneys. The Genesis full continuum of care for women and children who are escaping DV is provided at no cost to the client and is delivered through a trauma-informed response that addresses the personalized needs of each and every individual.

The Genesis non-residential program has experienced a steady increase in clients since its inception, as well as a shift in needs and responses to DV that require careful application of evidence-based programs and technology. Genesis has outgrown its current Outreach Counseling Center, experiencing a 63% increase in counseling hours in 2018 (26,000 hours provided, versus 16,000 in 2017); additional space with expanded offerings is desperately needed. Current estimates also point to an additional increase in new clients of at least 20% but possibly as high as 40% in 2019 and in subsequent years, as the prior year-over-year increase was 40% (3,500 2018 vs. 2,500 2017). In all additional areas measured Genesis continually experiences increases year-over-year. The upward trend of need is anticipated to continue, and the staff, program and facility must expand to accommodate it.

In August 2019, SMD engaged Crescent to pursue NMTC financings for both the Genesis Street and Austin Street Centers. On January 8th, in partnership with Hampton Roads Ventures, Texas Mezzanine Fund and Capital One, Crescent and SMD closed on a $19M NMTC financing to construct the new Genesis Women’s Center.

Genesis’ new campus will encompass a 28,600 square-foot facility for non-residential counseling services plus accommodate the establishment of three evidence-based centers for treatment, advocacy and research-focused education: The Center for Child Trauma and Healing, The Legal Justice Center and Family Law Library, and The Genesis Institute for Training and Education. The center will also launch a dedicated 24/7 DV response initiative in the Genesis Technology Command Center. Firsts for the city of Dallas, these new initiatives will transform current approaches to DV response, treatment and prevention, supporting more positive outcomes for women and children.

The new Genesis Women’s Shelter will increase overall capacity by 40%, legal service provision by 100%, deployment of cutting-edge techniques targeting children traumatized by domestic violence, education opportunities for DV advocates and therapists, and will debut the Genesis Technology Command Center. The newly-completed Genesis Women’s Shelter will necessitate the hiring of between 40-70 new FTE’s.

Shelter Ministries of Dallas – Austin Street Center for Community Engagement

January 7, 2021 by

1717 Jeffries Street, Dallas, TX 75226

Founded by Shelter Ministries of Dallas (“SMD”) in 1983 and located on Austin Street south of downtown Dallas, the shelter moved to its current location on Hickory Street in 1992. Austin Street Shelter subsequently evolved into Austin Street Center, a 400-bed shelter and comprehensive care program for the homeless. More than just a meal and a bed, the Austin Street individualized model of service offers the homeless a comprehensive program that includes housing coordination and stabilization services, employment and education resources, benefits and ID assistance, mental health services on-site, spiritual, emotional, and addiction support, diversion, and transportation. Austin Street is also Dallas’ largest “low barrier” shelter, accepting people as they are, without imposing obstacles or “barriers” to entry, such as passing a drug test.

Despite an aging facility and space constraints, Austin Street has managed to support substantial increases in client volume over the past five years (1,569 in 2013 to 3,008 in 2018), while significantly enriching its program to better address needs. The center’s track record remains impressive; its programs have the highest success rate for housing transition in Dallas, with the lowest rate of recidivism. However, both the current facility and its staff have reached capacity; both require expansion, as homelessness in Dallas continues to increase. (The 2019 “Point in Time” count of the homeless population revealed 4,538 total individuals experiencing homelessness in Dallas, a 9% increase over 2018.) In response, Austin Street is planning a brand-new campus that spans approximately 2.3 acres and is located across the street from the current South Dallas facility.

On January 7, 2021, utilizing allocation provided by PeopleFund, Dallas Development Fund and Capital One, Crescent and SMD closed on a $17,500,000 NMTC financing to construct the new Austin Street Center.

The new 60,000 square-foot Austin Street Center for Community Engagement, a 24/7 client-focused facility dedicated to supporting and improving the health and wellness of Dallas’ most vulnerable homeless population.

The new Austin Street Center for Community Engagement will increase shelter capacity by 12%, meals served by 28%, bathroom stall availability by 400%, daytime access by 100%, case managers by 67%, respite care by 30 beds, and classroom space through the addition of three new classrooms – with all of this accomplished in the context of efficient, state-of-the-art facilities operated according to data-driven best practices.

Homeland Grocery

December 3, 2020 by

Since 1993, community stakeholders and City Councilmembers have been trying to bring a full-service grocer to Northeast Oklahoma City, going so far as to create the NE Renaissance TIF District, and providing $4,400,000 in TIF financing to incentivize a developer to build a grocery store in the neighborhood.

In early 2020, a development partnership between The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City, Inc., Northeast Equity Group and TR Partners negotiated a long term lease with HAC, Inc. to bring a Homeland Food Store to NE 36th and N. Lincoln Blvd (the “Project”). The new full-service store will be in a unique position to provide healthy affordable alternatives to fast food, in a USDA Food Desert that currently has no full-service grocery store, and has seen 2 of its limited-service grocery stores close within the last 2 years.

The Project is expected to create 75 new full time jobs, earning competitive wages, a broad suite of benefits and the potential for ownership: HAC Inc. offers all full time employees a no cost participation in its Employee Stock Ownership Program (“ESOP”). The ESOP is set up as a retirement plan on the employees’ behalf, and after 3 years of service, the ESOP becomes 100% vested in the employees account.

The Homeland Grocery project at 36th and Lincoln is part of an overall master development plan that includes the City of Oklahoma City Senior Wellness Center, which will be operated in part by Langston University, the state of Oklahoma’s only Historically Black College and University. During the Wellness Center planning stage, a grocery store was identified as a critical co-anchor for the master plan.

In August, 2020, Crescent Growth Capital was engaged by the Homeland team to pursue a New Market Tax Credit (“NMTC”) financing to construct a new, 30,000 sf full-service grocery store, including a bakery, deli, and pharmacy with drive through. A total of $10.5M of NMTC allocation was provided by Heartland Renaissance Fund and US Bank, with US Bank also serving as the NMTC investor, providing an estimated $1.5M of NMTC net benefit for the project.

Audubon Gentilly Charter School

July 1, 2020 by

Public education in New Orleans is today wholly entrusted to non-profit charter schools. Multiple networks of independent charter schools are supervised by the elected school board, which functions as the disinterested enforcer of academic standards, provider of resources best offered in a centralized fashion, and owner of school buildings. The resulting highly entrepreneurial environment has transformed educational outcomes throughout the city and afforded to successful charter school operators the opportunity to take over operation of additional schools.

Audubon Schools began as a traditionally-administered public elementary school in the city’s Uptown neighborhood. Almost fifty years ago, four teachers attending Montessori training at Tulane University resolved to find a public school home for this unique pedagogical approach, then and now mostly present in private Montessori schools. The teachers successfully petitioned the Orleans Parish School Board, which authorized “Audubon Montessori” in 1981. Five years later, the school started a French immersion track, which was formally sponsored by the French government in 1990 (The French Ministry of Education supports the program to this day). In the years leading up to Hurricane Katrina (2005), Audubon Montessori became widely referred to as a “public dream school” beloved by its parents (who affixed to their cars bumper stickers sporting this slogan). In the wake of Katrina, Audubon reopened as an independent charter school.

Under the leadership of Superintendent Henderson Lewis (2015-2022), the OPSB adopted a policy of encouraging successful charter school operators to grow by being awarded additional schools to administer. In Gentilly Terrace, an historic neighborhood of the city platted in 1909, the closure of the neighborhood’s charter elementary school was announced in 2016, a consequence of unimpressive academic results and dwindling enrollment. An unprecedented alliance of the Gentilly Terrace & Gardens Improvement Association, the leadership of Audubon Schools and the OPSB was formed to argue for the selection of Audubon as the new operator for Gentilly Terrace’s neighborhood elementary school. In the fall of 2018, Audubon Gentilly began operations, immediately ranking among the most sought-after public schools in the city.

Crescent Growth Capital was hired by Audubon Schools to provide contingent fee-based historic preservation consulting and historic tax credit monetization services, to subsidize the $2.7 million cost of readying the school building for its new operator. Gentilly Terrace School was constructed in 1914, to a design by architect E.A. Christy, and expanded in 1924. The wood-frame Craftsman style building boasts numerous flourishes which typify the Arts-and-Crafts movement, including scalloped rafter tails, decorative friezes and elaborate knee-brace brackets at the gable ends, A contributing element to the Gentilly Terrace National Register Historic District, the school received a rehabilitated ground floor and dramatically re-landscaped side yard play areas incorporating best practices in stormwater management.

Crescent Growth Capital’s in-house historic preservation specialist prepared a three-element Historic Preservation Certification Application over seventeen months. Part 3 approval was received on December 19, 2019, with credit monetization accomplished by Crescent and tax credit sale proceeds delivered to Audubon Schools in July of 2020.

Non-profits

Contact Us

Footer