New Markets Tax Credits

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.

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.

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