Non-profits

New Orleans Museum of Art – Stern Auditorium

September 24, 2021 by

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) was established in 1910 in the wake of an endowment received from sugar planter Issac Delgado. Known as the “Issac Delgado Museum of Art” for its first six decades, the museum’s historic core consists of a Greek Neoclassical structure completed in 1911 to a design by Samuel Marx. In 1971 three wings were added, extending from the east, west and north elevations of the original museum and providing for more exhibit space, improved amenities, and a dedicated auditorium. The 1971 additions were executed in a minimalist style, devoid of ornament and clad in white concrete aggregate panels. The formerly quadrangular museum became T-shaped in plan at this point and was renamed “The New Orleans Museum of Art.” In 1993, the most recent set of additions were completed, executed in a restrained postmodern style, and resulting in the creation of two rectangular courtyards about the east-west axis of the museum.

The museum interior contains two significant spaces. The skylit, covered central courtyard, just inside the main entry, is original to the 1911 structure and is executed in a highly detailed Greek Neoclassical style modified by decorative flourishes inspired by subtropical flora. A postmodern style atrium three stories high and dating to 1993 spans the museum’s east-west axis and provides dramatic, centralized access to every programmatic component of the building.

The New Orleans Museum of Art today boasts a collection of almost 40,000 objects, with notable strengths in French and American art, photography, glass, and African and Japanese works. The preferred venue in the region for important touring exhibitions, NOMA in its early years hosted a retrospective on Pablo Picasso (1940) organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and welcomed, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, a survey of five centuries of French painting (1953), populated exclusively by works on loan from the Louvre. The museum’s 1971 expansion enabled the hosting of still more elaborate exhibitions, including those displaying treasures from the tomb of King Tut (1977) and artifacts addressing the life and times of Alexander the Great (1982), with the former exhibition welcoming nearly one million visitors in the course of its short run. The completion of the 1993 expansion permitted additional notable exhibitions, including one on the paintings of Claude Monet (1995) and, in honor of New Orleans’ 300th birthday, an exhibition (2018) displaying together for the first time since the 18th century many of the works collected by the city’s namesake, Philippe II, Duc d’Orleans. The most recent physical enlargement of NOMA’s footprint occurred with the debut in 2003 and expansion in 2019 of the outdoor Besthoff Sculpture Garden, installed around several lagoons adjacent to the museum.

Hired in late 2019 to provide contingent fee-based historic preservation consulting and tax credit monetization services for a $7.1 million rehabilitation of the museum’s Stern Auditorium, east courtyard, and café, Crescent Growth Capital’s in-house historic preservation specialist prepared a six-element Historic Preservation Certification Application over an eighteen-month period. The project reconfigured the non-historic auditorium to increase the space’s flexibility and technological capacity, with three of its four walls serving as the new location for Enrique Alferez’ “Spirit of Communication” (1967), salvaged from its original installation within the escalator lobby of the now-demolished Times-Picayune building in New Orleans. The non-historic east courtyard (1993) was enclosed, though extensive glazing preserves its light-filled character. Part 3 approval was received on May 17, 2021, with credit monetization accomplished by Crescent in September. Tax credit sale proceeds of approximately $1 million were subsequently delivered to NOMA.

Biomedical Research Foundation – Center for Molecular Imaging and Therapy

June 24, 2021 by

The Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana (d/b/a BRF), a 501(c)(3) based in Shreveport, LA, was created in 1986 to serve as a cornerstone for a rebounding Shreveport economy. Shreveport had enjoyed a fairly robust expansion from the mid-1970’s to the early-80’s, driven in large part by a heavy dependence on the oil and gas industry. However, a sharp decline in the global price of oil in the mid-1980’s had a particularly devastating effect on Shreveport’s economy, forcing most of the city’s major employers to either close their doors or leave town.

In the wake of the oil glut, Shreveport’s Chamber of Commerce commissioned an economic study that focused on laying the foundation for a more diversified local economy. In 1986, the Biomedical Research Foundation was created to serve as one of the pillars of the new, multifaceted Shreveport economy. In 1994, BRF opened the $36M Virginia K. Shehee Biomedical Research Institute, the home of the state and region’s first Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Center. PET scans expedite the diagnosis and treatment for cancer patients, as well as advancing research on many other diseases. BRF also launched STEM education programs for local high school students to assist in educating future innovators and workers in the region.

In June. 2019, BRF engaged Crescent Growth Capital to pursue a New Markets Tax Credit financing for its $15M Center for Molecular Imaging and Therapy (CMIT), and in summer, 2021, the team closed on a $5M Louisiana State NMTC financing to purchase state-of-the-art PET and CT scanning equipment for the new CMIT facility.

The new CMIT center will serve as a platform to host advanced clinical trials and cutting-edge healthcare solutions, while providing research opportunities for scientists from around the country. CMIT is capable of producing and distributing radiopharmaceuticals for speedy detection of medical conditions, while expanding the molecular imaging program through its two main divisions:

The Radiopharmaceutical Division for expanded access to both existing and novel radio pharmaceuticals
The Imaging and Therapy Division for expanded access to diagnostic scans and novel therapies

CMIT has evolved to also provide access to unique diagnostic probes as advanced medical tools for the local population as well as researchers. For example, CMIT offers cancer patients image-guided treatment options, and state-of-the-art advanced medical care via targeted alpha therapy. Similarly, CMIT patients with neurodegenerative disorders have access to radiopharmaceuticals specific to their disease that can assist physicians in customizing therapy to the individual patients. Such options are currently available only at select academic centers across the nation.

The $14.8M CMIT facility is expected to increase total employment from 16 to 41 FTE’s, with the 25 new positions earning an average of $60,000 annually. CMIT serves a patient base that is comprised primarily of referrals from the former LSU hospital in Shreveport, one of Louisiana’s two main safety-net hospitals. As a result, 70% of CMIT patients rely on Medicare/Medicaid, and 15% are uninsured: since 1995, CMIT has conducted 46,000 PET scans, including 10,000 free scans to uninsured and indigent patients. Furthermore, CMIT has a financial hardship assistance program that provides for varying levels of payment assistance depending on the patient’s family size and need.

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.

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