New Markets Tax Credits

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.

San Antonio Food Bank – Phase II

January 28, 2020 by

Founded in 1980, the San Antonio Food Bank (“SAFB”) is a non-profit organization that serves as a clearinghouse, receiving and storing donated food, fresh produce, and other groceries. SAFB distributes these items in manageable quantities to over 500 independent partner agencies that help people in need. However, SAFB’s activities are not limited to distributing food to street-level food kitchens; SAFB also operates programs to help people escape the poverty that results in chronic hunger and encourages better nutrition throughout the region via additional services.

Texas is ranked 2nd in the country in household incidences of food insecurity – unreliable access to sufficient, affordable, nutritious food – with 1 in 6 Texans living in food insecure households. The need in San Antonio is even more dire: one in five adults, and one in four children reported struggling with food insecurity in the past year. Seniors are equally at risk, and often have to choose between adequate nutritious food and vital medical services.

SAFB has grown its reach to include 16 counties, feeding 58,000 people a week. Of the 58,000 clients served weekly, 35% are children, 25% routinely have to choose between food and medical services, 46% work and still face food insecurity, and 67% have incomes below the federal poverty level.

The new 50,000 sf facility will house a production kitchen, an expanded area for culinary training, a vegetable prep plant, and a seasonal venison processing plant.

Beyond the physical characteristics of the new facility, it will support four key SAFB efforts, the Culinary Training Program, the Production Kitchen, a “Grab-and-Go” salad prep plant, and SAFB’s “Hunters for the Hungry” program. The SAFB has run a hugely successful culinary training program for more than a decade that targets the homeless, disabled, and long-term unemployed with the training. This new facility would offer new classroom and teaching space. The greater San Antonio region has hundreds of unfilled positions today in the hospitality industry, and this expansion would allow SAFB to double the number of participants per class (from 8-10 per class to 16-20 per class). Classes run in 18 week blocks and will soon be offered with a guaranteed job and stipend.

The new facility would be home to a state-of-the-art production kitchen capable of putting out more than 10,000 meals a day. One of SAFB’s primary goals is to meet the near-constant demand for meals for children and seniors but the kitchen in the existing facility limits SAFB’s ability to meet that demand. The new kitchen will operate 2-3 shifts per day and as many as 7 days a week. The addition of this kitchen would allow the current kitchen on the Westside campus to become home to Catalyst Catering, SAFB’s social enterprise, which is now using a kitchen offsite.

This development plan also includes a new “Grab-and-Go” salad prep plant where SAFB would wash, store, prep/chop, and assemble healthy salads (with as much of the produce as possible coming from its own farms) for distribution via its social enterprise efforts and mission programs. The organization is the leader in southwest Texas in promoting healthy eating, and the addition of a salad prep plant would afford a wider variety of healthy food options to those facing hunger. SAFB envisions the salads offered on a Grab-and-Go model, creating a new source of revenue to support its catering and Mobile Mercado social enterprise programs.

Lastly, the new 50,000 building will expand SAFB’s existing “Hunters for the Hungry” program that allows individual hunters and ranch owners to donate harvested deer to be processed for free, with the venison going to the SAFB as an additional source of high-quality protein for its meals. South Texas has the largest deer population in the United States and existing local processors participating in similar programs that use harvested deer to feed the hungry simply cannot handle the volume. So SAFB plans on addressing this opportunity by building out its own (seasonal) processing plant to meet the need.

The SAFB may also expand this processing plant to allow for the processing of feral hogs, which cost Texas neighborhoods, farms and ranches hundreds of millions of dollars in damage each year. The State of Texas allows for hogs to be trapped live and taken to a USDA inspected facility for harvesting. This new processing plant would help address both the State’s ballooning feral hog population and its pervasive food insecurity.

In January, 2020, Crescent Growth Capital assisted SAFB with the closing of a $19M NMTC financing, utilizing allocation provided by Texas Mezzanine Fund, McCormick Baron Salazar, and PeopleFund and an investment from US Bank.

This project will create 9 direct FTE positions, as well as an estimated 40 construction jobs. Furthermore, the culinary training program will soon be able to offer its graduates with a guaranteed job as well as a stipend, so the ancillary job creation from this programming alone will be roughly 120 positions over the first three years.

Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep – Phase II

September 18, 2019 by

Founded in Chicago in 2001 by Father John P. Foley, S.J., the Cristo Rey network is the largest network of high schools in the US whose enrollment is limited to low-income youth. Cristo Rey employs an innovative business model, wherein students work five days each month in entry-level jobs at local professional companies, with the fee for their work being directed to underwrite tuition costs. Operating on a franchise system, each Cristo Rey school is a partnership between a local operator with an established track record, and the proven Cristo Rey 9-12 programming that is based on rigorous academics, four years of professional work experience, and Catholic moral values, employed in a high-expectations environment. Students’ tuition is subsidized by the same work study program that prepares them for college, as well as putting them in good position to succeed in their first job.

Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep (“CRDCP”), the 30th Cristo Rey school nationwide, welcomed its inaugural 126-member freshman class in September, 2015, operating out of the St. Augustine Drive site in Pleasant Grove, under a lease with the Catholic Diocese of Dallas. The current class is 94% Hispanic, 70% come from the failing DISD public school system, 70% report knowing no one either in their family or neighborhood who attended college, and the average 5-member family household income of the student body is around $35,000.

CRDCP employs the same Corporate Work Study Program found in all Cristo Rey schools. The program is an innovative model of education that gives students a Catholic, college-preparatory education while earning work experience in a corporate setting. Four students rotate through the week to fill the position full-time. Each student has an assigned day on which he or she works. On Friday, the four students rotate to share the fifth day of the week. In each four-week span, each student will have one week in which he or she works two days. Student schedules are created so that students never miss a class.

Students are employees of the Corporate Work Study Program, not the job sponsors. Sponsors pay a flat fee to the Corporate Work Study Program for one full-time Corporate Work Study Team. The Corporate Work Study Program handles all payroll, W-4, I-9, Worker’s Compensation, FICA and FUTA paperwork, as well as all routine employer issues. The Corporate Work Study Program is separately incorporated, functioning as an employment agency within Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep.

CRDCP’s Corporate Work Study program partners include a broad spectrum of Dallas’ biggest regional, national and international companies, operating in a variety of industries, such as commercial real estate, accounting, law, energy exploration/oilfield services, non-profits, and consumer products.

The project site is located within a USDA-designated Food Desert, and Cristo Rey Dallas provides students with meals through the National School Lunch Program and have school-wide physical recreation time on Friday mornings to encourage healthy habits.

With the main academic building completed as a result of the first NMTC closing in December, 2016, the administration has turned its focus to the rest of the campus – specifically the 32,000 sf Innovation Center, housing the dining hall and technology and resource centers, as well as an administrative building, Corporate Work Study Program headquarters, an arts and music center, a gymnasium, a sports field and parking.

In September, 2019, Crescent Growth Capital helped facilitate a $16,500,000 NMTC financing to fund the school’s Phase 2 campus development plan. By leveraging NMTC allocation provided by Dallas Development Fund, Raza Development Fund, and top off allocation as well as NMTC investment from Capital One, the financing could deliver up to $3M in net benefit to the school.

Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas – Phases I & II

July 23, 2019 by

Girl Scouts is proud to be celebrating 101 years of building girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place. As a national movement of more than 2.3 million girls, 890,000 adults and more than 59 million alumnae, Girl Scouts is a force for developing leadership skills in girls. Since its founding by Juliette Gordon Low, Girl Scouts has been an inclusive sisterhood of women and girls that represents every zip code across the country.

In the last 101 years, the world has changed dramatically. When Juliette founded the organization in 1912, women had very few personal rights. Today, girls face another set of challenges as they navigate their lives in an increasingly complex and uncertain world. The 21^st century requires a different kind of leader – one who not only values the power of diversity, inclusion, and collaboration, but also is committed to bringing people together to improve neighborhoods, communities, and the world.

Girl Scouts is today, as it always has been, the organization best positioned to offer girls the tools they need to be successful leaders now and throughout their lives. In fact, Girl Scouts is the largest pipeline for female leaders in the country:

Nearly 80% of female business owners were Girl Scouts.

A full 68% of women serving in Congress were Girl Scouts and every female Secretary of State was a Girl Scout.

Nearly every woman who has ever flown in space was a Girl Scout.

Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas (GSNETX) was formed as a result of realignment in 2007. In 2014, their council served nearly 31,000 girls in a 32-county area from DFW Airport, east to Louisiana and north to Oklahoma. In Dallas alone, more than 3,000 girls – 67% of which were Hispanic – participated in the Dallas Area Community Outreach Programs (Title 1 schools, low-income areas primarily in South Dallas, in DISD schools).

Camp Whispering Cedars, established in 1926, has welcomed nearly 100,000 Girl Scouts since inception. Encompassing approximately 60 acres, Camp Whispering Cedars is the largest urban camp serving girls in North Texas. The camp is located just 20 minutes south of downtown Dallas within the City of Dallas boundaries. Its access to a major urban population, with an estimated 40,000 girls living in low socio-economic conditions, makes this property ideally suited to reduce barriers to participation for a large number of girls and adults who have limited resources and transportation options.

The Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) Center at Camp Whispering Cedars is a pilot program for Girl Scouts USA and is expected to be the model for other urban camps nationally. Camp Whispering Cedars’ proximity to the metropolitan area of Dallas along with its rural seclusion from the urban or suburban environments makes it a unique camp that can offer a careful integration of pristine and protected natural environments and modern technology and its applications. This integration provides endless opportunities to elevate girl programming and experiences to new levels of creativity and innovation.

STEM programming has been at the center of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience since its inception. To further this mission, GSNETX’s vision for Camp Whispering Cedars is to create a STEM Center of Excellence where girls can explore science, technology, engineering and math, hands-on in the living laboratory of the outdoors. At Camp Whispering Cedars, girls will grow in confidence and make lifelong memories. Girls will come to have fun through traditional outdoor adventure and exploration while, at the same time, they will be offered programming that naturally integrates STEM into activities. Girls will take a deep dive into the natural world and tackle high-adventure challenges through project-based STEM activities. Thanks to a wide array of partnerships, Camp Whispering Cedars will offer girls a variety of programming, including:

Hunt Oil will identify unique geological features of the site and key areas to observe unique formations on the property, including the escarpment between the Eagle Ford Shale and the Austin Chalk, which runs directly through the site.

Texas Instruments will help incorporate STEM learning concepts into a Girl Scout badge-earning workshop, identifying key areas of STEM career exploration to address with the Scouts.

Texas Master Naturalists will identify environmental and conservation learning opportunities and help GSNETX to develop focused programming for the Scouts.

Fluor Corporation, AT&T and University of Texas at Dallas will all help develop specific STEM-based programming for both the regular summer curriculum and College Journey.

City of Dallas/State of Texas will help GSNETX to develop a water conservation and stream monitoring program, in which girls will learn about water and its impact on the environment.

Texas Trees Foundation and Dogwood Canyon will identify unique hardwood trees, flora and fauna and other unique natural features on the site, and will help develop hiking and nature trails that highlight these features.

Perot Museum will provide STEM-related programming at the museum, and will bring girls to Camp Whispering Cedars to explore the concepts in an outdoor environment.

Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas initiated a capital campaign last year during the 100th anniversary of the organization to help support the Whispering Cedars Camp transformation. GSNETX received a $1 million gift from the Rees-Jones Foundation. This initial gift allowed Girl Scouts to acquire an additional 36 acres of property immediately adjacent to the camp to provide more program space while creating a buffer from the outside world. GSNETX now has almost 100 acres in the City of Dallas to serve girls and will break ground on the Rees-Jones Welcome Center this summer.

In 2016, GSNETX engaged Crescent Growth Capital to facilitate a NMTC financing so as to reduce the fundraising burden required to finance the Camp Whispering Cedars renovation. In December, 2016, CGC and GSNETX closed on a $8M NMTC financing, utilizing allocation provided by Dallas Development Fund and Capital One.

In July, 2019, Crescent Growth Capital facilitated a second NMTC financing for the Camp Whispering Cedars project, with an additional $5.5M of NMTC allocation provided by Dallas Development Fund.

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