New Markets Tax Credits

Girls Inc.

October 7, 2022 by

The mission of national non-profit Girls Inc. and its affiliates is to serve girls and young women ages 6-18 by fostering long-term mentoring relationships within safe spaces for girls to develop their strengths and take charge of their futures. Girls Inc. deploys an evidence-based, pro-girl model to address the systemic barriers that hold young women back today. Within pro-girl, girls-only safe spaces, Girls Inc. teaches young women to be Strong, Smart and Bold.

Strong – Programming that teaches nourishing habits, including stressing the importance of positive choices, a healthy diet, rest and self-care, to create the resiliency essential for future accomplishment.
Smart – Programming that prepares girls for fulfilling work and economic independence. Specific career opportunities and pathways are described, with a focus on STEM fields that experts believe will offer the largest number of highly-remunerative professions for which demand is growing – professions in which women continue to be underrepresented. Girls Inc. also provides access and opportunities for young women to meet and learn from female role models and community leaders. This exposure demonstrates to young, underprivileged women that women can and do succeed in all realms.
Bold – Programming that fosters positive self-image and intellectual confidence, encouraging girls to develop and use their voices. Girls Inc. wants to see young woman become comfortable taking risks, learning from mistakes, and growing.

In 2004, Girls Inc. inaugurated its San Antonio chapter. A majority of its participants come from impoverished communities of color, with program attendees almost exclusively Hispanic. These young women struggle, growing up in neighborhoods affected by violence, in under-resourced schools, and without access to adequate nutrition or healthcare. Birth rates among teenage young women of color are twice as high as among white teens.

In 2020, sixteen years after its establishment in San Antonio, Girls Inc. acquired a permanent headquarters facility, enabling a quantum leap in its capacity and capabilities.

In September of 2022, in partnership with Texas Mezzanine Fund, and Chase Bank, Crescent closed on a $9M Federal NMTC financing which will enable Girls Inc. of San Antonio – eighteen years after its establishment – to complete and fully equip its new headquarters and youth activity campus, providing a safe space for San Antonio’s underprivileged young woman of color to develop their strengths, learn from mistakes, and take charge of their future, according to the proven Strong, Smart, Bold model.

The completed campus will rank as a vanguard initiative designed to recover ground lost during the pandemic, during which time narrowed horizons, academic underperformance, violence and abuse have proliferated among San Antonio’s disadvantaged young women of color. The new Girls Inc. campus will double the number of young women attending the evidence-based programming offered by Girls Inc., from 2,500 annually to 5,000 annually. FTE staff numbers will double as well from 15 to 30.

Jefferson Community Health and Life

September 9, 2022 by

Jefferson Community Health & Life was established in 1963 as Jefferson County Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home, the first hospital/nursing home combination in the state of Nebraska. The facility has grown over the years, adding a home health agency in 1984, a community wellness center in 1996, expanding outpatient services throughout the years, and adding the Fairbury Clinic in 2016, and opened the Plymouth Clinic in 2018. Through its 50-plus-year history, Jefferson Community Health & Life has been very active and involved in its community, and has worked to promote health and wellness. Currently 20 visiting specialists utilize this space each month, allowing area residents the opportunity to receive specialty care locally. JCHL operates two rural health clinics offering primary care services by 9 employed providers.

In Nebraska, nearly 30 percent of the state’s population resides in rural areas like Fairbury and its surrounding communities. JCH&L faces a unique combination of rural forces not faced by their urban healthcare peers, such as continuing health provider shortages, limited access to specialty care, disparate socioeconomic factors, and higher rates of obesity, hypertension, suicide, and death by serious injury.

In August of 2022, in partnership with Hampton Roads Ventures, and US Bank, Crescent closed on a $9M Federal NMTC/$9M Nebraska State NMTC twin financing for the expansion of the Jefferson Community Health and Life Critical Access Hospital..

The expansion includes 23 exams rooms, 2 special procedure rooms, a radiology room, and a specialty room for COVID and flu patients. JCH&L currently employs 192 FTEs and this expansion will create 10 new full-time jobs ranging from nursing to support staff as well as laboratory technicians. 65% of JCH&L’s patients are Medicare/Medicaid, and this addition is expected to grow Medicare/Medicaid services by nearly 10% from 2022-2026. Additionally, the subsidy from the transaction will enhance JCH&L’s liquidity in funding ongoing services for the hospital.

Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma

February 15, 2022 by

CFBEO is Feeding America’s designated food bank for the twenty-four county region of eastern Oklahoma centered around Tulsa. In 2019, the food bank distributed a record 28.9 million pounds of food.

In 1981, in response to the rising number of people struggling with hunger, Tulsa’s Neighbor for Neighbor feeding program evolved to become the Tulsa Community Food Bank. Operating from a small, donated warehouse space, in year one the food bank provided food assistance to 25 partner agencies and distributed 90,000 pounds of food, the equivalent of 75,000 meals.

In 2006, the Food Bank opened its current facility, the Donald W. Reynolds Food Distribution Center. That year the Food Bank distributed 7.5 million pounds of food, a record at the time.

Since its founding, the food bank has also steadily grown its service area and has continued to expand the scope of its services. Programs include on-site feeding programs, emergency shelters, emergency food pantries, children and senior feeding programs, veterans’ outreach initiatives, disaster relief and other low-income programs that have a meal component. All of these programs provide food free of charge to people who struggle with hunger in the community.

The food bank’s work also includes direct feeding programs such as Cooking Matters, Food for Kids, and Senior Servings, as well as clinic pantries, mobile pantries, and culinary center and college campus pantries. Collectively the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma coordinates more than 380 direct feeding sites.

In 2019, the food bank distributed a record 28.9 million pounds of food, the equivalent of more than 24 million meals, to the hungry. The food bank distributes food via both direct programs and through 350 partner agencies, located in the 24 counties of eastern Oklahoma that comprise nearly 30,000 square miles and contain a population of more than 1.5 million people.

Despite these ongoing successes, CFBEO’s distribution center has been bursting at the seams for years. At 78,000 square feet, the facility was designed to have the capacity to distribute 20 million pounds of food annually.

In February of 2022, in partnership with Hampton Roads Ventures, Heartland Renaissance Fund and Capital One, Crescent closed on a $16M NMTC financing to construct the new Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma.

CFBEO will add 66,000 SF to CFBEO’s existing 78,000 SF facility, increasing its design capacity from 20 million pounds of food distributed annually to nearly 52 million pounds of food distributed annually. Even though improved workflows will greatly boost the productivity of CFBEO’s existing workforce, additional hiring will be needed, resulting in nine permanent new positions. Approximately 250 construction jobs will also be generated by the facility expansion component of the Build Hope campaign. A new 12,500 SF food preparation kitchen will enable the growth in prepared meal distribution, and fresher, more nutritious offerings will be made available.

Oasis Grocery Store

September 8, 2021 by

For many years, the north Tulsa community has suffered from food insecurity evidenced by enormous disparities in health quality and life expectancy. Most studies reference the USDA’s research atlas which provides both precise and poignant data on the target area, identifying seventeen north Tulsa census tracts as food deserts. Additionally, a past report of the Regional Food Bank indicated that one in six Oklahomans struggles with hunger. Data suggests this statistic may be double in north Tulsa due to the interrelated issues of food access, hunger, and economic instability.

Tulsa Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) is a catalyst for economic prosperity in Tulsa’s under-resourced communities. While TEDC’s primary focus is providing progressive lending to promising businesses that create job opportunities for low-and-moderate income Tulsans, the organization launched a new priority in 2020, known as Project Oasis Fresh Market, a public-private collaboration designed to reduce the footprint of food deserts in one of Tulsa’s most important communities.

Oasis Fresh Market is located in an extended area of Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District. Known in the early 20^th century as “Black Wall Street”, the area was once one of the most affluent and commercially viable predominately African-American areas in the country. The district was burned to the ground during the race massacre of 1921, as 300 black residents were murdered, hundreds more were injured, and 5,000 people were rendered homeless. The area has been a primary focus of redevelopment for decades, and though development has happened slowly, the racial equity component of the development has had minimal minority investment or inclusion.

In September, 2021, CGC and TEDC closed on a $7M NMTC financing to complete the Oasis Fresh Market building, utilizing NMTC allocation provided by Hampton Roads Ventures and US Bank Community Development. The new 16,425 sf grocery store will create 21 new FTE’s.

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.

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.

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