New Markets Tax Credits

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Omaha

August 14, 2018 by

620 S 38th Ave, Omaha, NE 68105

In 1971, Kim Hill, the 5-year old daughter of Philadelphia Eagles’ tight end Fred Hill, was diagnosed with leukemia, and began treatment with oncologist Dr. Audrey Evans at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In the wake of Kim’s successful treatment, the Eagles raised $100,000 through their Eagles Fly for Leukemia philanthropic program to support Dr. Evans’ team at Children’s Hospital. Dr. Evans gratefully accepted the donation, but she also requested that the Eagles consider funding a house in which families of the children in the hospital could get proper rest, away from the hospital. So in October, 1974, Fred Hill, Eagles General Manager Jim Murray and other Eagles teammates co-founded the first Ronald McDonald House, named for the partnership the Eagles organization forged with a local McDonald’s that participated in, and donated to, the Eagles Fly for Leukemia program.

More than four decades later, the Ronald McDonald House organization has expanded significantly, with 365 houses in 64 countries and regions. Given its proximity to one of the best pediatric gastroenterology surgical practices in the country, the RMHC in Omaha supports a much larger footprint than any other RMH in North America, having hosted families from 29 states as well as Mexico. Typical recovery times for these types of surgery result in an average family stay in the RMH of Omaha of around 25 days over the past four years, which is longer than average when compared to other RMH’s around the country

The RMHC offers a variety of programs that are not typically offered in other Ronald McDonald Houses, all of which are aimed at addressing many of the ancillary problems with families’ temporary relocation. The expansion of the RMHC in Omaha will double its footprint to 40,000 sf, as well as its capacity, from 20 to 40 rooms. The new facility will continue to serve a patient base averaging less than $14,000 in annual income, 1/3rd of whom are African-American or Latino families.

An 857 sf classroom will provide the space necessary for classes on GED preparation, financial planning, sibling tutoring, English language, new mother/new baby orientation, and stress and anxiety management. The facility will also offer informational seminars on gastro intestinal rehabilitation, pediatric cancer, pediatric transplants, traumatic injuries, autism, neonatal & premature babies, and pediatric eating disorders.

Once the expansion is completed, RMHC in Omaha will be the only RMH in the world with an on-site clinic, offering 4 infusion bed treatment rooms for children with impaired immune systems to receive their infusion treatments in a controlled environment, greatly reducing the risk of exposure resulting from ambulance transportation to and from the Medical Campus. Staffed and managed by Nebraska Medicine, the 2,995 sf clinic keeps the child on-site, where family and loved-ones are close at hand in a “home-like” environment, reducing the psychological stress on the patient before, during and after treatment.

The facility has partnered with Angels Among Us, a local non-profit that supports children and families affected by pediatric cancer, providing financial support such as covering rent or mortgage payments, utilities, car lease and insurance payments, medical and prescription drug costs, daycare and just about any other costs associated with families’ extended time away from work and home.

In May of 2018, RMHC hired Crescent to pursue NMTCs in conjunction with its overall financing plan for the expansion. Having already secured cash donations, pledges, and bank loan commitments totaling $8.5 million, Crescent worked to secure an investor commitment along with both Nebraska State NMTC allocation and Federal NMTC allocation. In August of 2018, Crescent and RMHC closed on $4.8M of Nebraska State NMTCs provided by Brownsfield Revitalization, $4.8M of Nebraska State NMTCs provided by Consortium America, and $6.0M of Federal NMTCs provided by Consortium America, leveraging a NMTC equity investment made by US Bank. The Nebraska State and Federal NMTC subsidies will go towards construction overruns, along with a variety of “wish list” items that would have been contemplated in subsequent phases, such as internal communications systems, support for transportation services, relocation costs, and tenant improvements for Nebraska Medicine and Angels Among Us.

Talladega College

April 19, 2018 by

Talladega College is the state of Alabama’s oldest Historically Black College (“HBCU”). Formed in 1869, today Talladega College has full-time enrollment of nearly 1,200 students, 97% of whom are Pell-grant eligible, and approximately 85% are 1st generation college students.

For 150-years, Talladega has provided quality education to its students and service to its community despite having no student center facilities whatsoever. Talladega students currently have no place to congregate, no central location in which to hold student group meetings or routine events such as graduation ceremonies and dances. This is a significant disadvantage in recruitment, says President Hawkins: “on weekend nights, students have nowhere to go to unwind, and are forced to sit on the steps outside their dorm rooms.”

In the face of this significant disadvantage, Talladega’s enrollment has grown 250% since 2009. Unfortunately, the College’s housing facilities are inadequate to cope with the sheer size of the student body. As a result, Talladega was forced to spend more than $300,000 on hotel rooms for 100 students from 2014-2017.

In June of 2014, Talladega College engaged Crescent to pursue NMTCs in conjunction with its overall financing plan for a new student center and residence hall. The student center was designed to not only serve Talladega students, but also to address the myriad issues affecting the residents living in the surrounding census tract, which is designated as medically-underserved and a Food Desert; the student center offers a new cafeteria and health clinic, both of which are open to the public.

The residence hall will consist of space for 203 beds (102 rooms), inclusive of rooms for undergraduate students, RA’s (resident advisers), handicapped accessible rooms, a housing director, as well as common study areas and lounges.

Having already secured a commitment from the USDA Rural Development Community Facilities program, Crescent worked to secure a construction loan, an investor commitment along with NMTC allocation. In April 2018, Crescent and Talladega College closed on $20.0M of NMTCs, utilizing allocation provided by United Bank, National Community Fund, and Trustmark Bank, leveraging a NMTC equity investment made by PNC Bank. The Federal NMTC subsidy helped cover nearly $3 million overruns resulting from commodity price escalation in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. By covering this gap, the NMTC subsidy allows Talladega to create 46 new FTE jobs and to expand its work-release program with Childersburg Correctional Facility.

Smith County Memorial Hospital

February 15, 2018 by

Smith County Memorial Hospital (SCMH) has been a staple in Smith County, KS for nearly 70 years, providing a wide variety of healthcare services to the surrounding, medically underserved area. Operating out of a woefully outdated facility and serving a patient base that is comprised nearly 65% of Medicare/Medicaid patients, SCMH provides surgical, emergency, diagnostic, labor & delivery, nursing, occupational and physical therapy services.

Unfortunately, SCMH’s original 35,000 sf facility is nearly 70 years old as well, and has become entirely inadequate to meet modern standards for a medical facility: it is grandfathered into outdated Life Safety regulations, and its only ADA-compliant facility does not have a single bathroom. In the current SCMH facility, all inpatient rooms are forced to share bathrooms, and all patients must use a single communal shower room. Rather than undergoing a 9-phase, two-year renovation of its existing facility to bring it up to modern Life Safety code – and effectively halting all medical services during that period – in 2017, SCMH began developing a plan to relocate and construct a new state-of-the-art facility.

In early 2017, SCMH engaged Crescent to pursue NMTC’s as part of the financing plan for its new $30M critical access hospital, having already secured a construction loan from Kansas State Bank, as well as a take-out commitment from the USDA Rural Development loan program. In February, 2018, CGC and SCMH closed on $17.5M of NMTC’s, utilizing allocation provided by Community Hospitality Healthcare Services and Central Bank of Kansas City, leveraging a NMTC equity investment made by US Bank.

The new 61,698 sf Smith County Memorial Hospital will offer 16 inpatient beds, a 28-bed Long Term care unit, a 6,115 sf surgery suite, outpatient clinic services, radiology and lab services, cafeteria and food services, physical therapy, wellness facilities, and the required administrative, maintenance, and support services. Additionally, SCMH will carry over to the new facility all of its current programming and outreach programs, including its scholarship program, which covers education costs for potential nursing staff, lab and radiology techs, in exchange for full-time employment commitments after graduation.

University of the Incarnate Word – School of Osteopathic Medicine

January 8, 2018 by

The population of Texas is growing at a meteoric pace, severely straining the state’s healthcare system. As of the 2010 Census, Texas ranked 47^th out of 50 states in the number of primary care physicians per 100,000 inhabitants (70.0 per 100,000 as of the 2010 Census). This figure conceals an even worse reality for South Texas. Remove Bexar County (San Antonio) from regional physician counts, and the South Texas region is left with a rate of primary care physicians per capita nearly half again as worse (43 per 100,000) as the statewide figure. Furthermore, only 10% of physicians in Texas are Hispanic, while 40% of the overall population is so classified, making for inadequate cultural competency and poorer care outcomes.

The University of the Incarnate Word decided to tackle this serious and worsening problem by founding a new medical school. The new school’s osteopathic curriculum is based on the recommendations of the Carnegie Foundation’s Educating Physicians for the 21st Century report, which outlined four goals for medical education: standardization of learning outcomes and individualization of the learning process; integration of formal knowledge and clinical experience; development of habits of inquiry and innovation; and, focus on professional identity formation.

Where to locate this needed new institution? As chance would have it, an especially attractive facility to house the new school was on offer: the historic, recently-vacated campus of the former USAF School of Aerospace Medicine at the decommissioned Brooks Air Force Base. After successfully sourcing NMTC allocation and closing on two previous projects for the university, Crescent Growth Capital was hired again by UIW, this time to attempt a combined federal New Markets Tax Credit and Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credit financing to help fund the university’s School of Osteopathic Medicine.

In December, 2016, Crescent and UIW closed on a $6 milllion NMTC financing for the new medical school, utilizing allocation provided by Enhanced Capital and NMTC equity provided by Wells Fargo. Thirteen months later, Crescent delivered $1.65 million in Texas state historic tax credits to Enhanced Capital, having authored Parts A, B and C of the Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credit application and collaborated with the San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation to have the National Park Service certify SA OHP’s School of Aerospace Medicine local historic district. The completed rehabilitation restored the 1963 main building’s deleted courtyard entry on the south elevation and leveraged its mid-century modern design to create an appealing, contemporary home for the new school.

With its School of Osteopathic Medicine, the University of the Incarnate Word is now positioned to pursue its long-range goal of increasing the number of osteopathic physicians beginning their practice by at least 145 per year, helping to ameliorate the severe regional healthcare supply deficit. UIW will enroll 150 students per class, a significant share of whom will be Hispanic; graduates of the four-year program will receive the “Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine” degree (D.O.).

New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute

December 28, 2017 by

New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute (NOCHI) was established for the purpose of marrying world-class culinary & hospitality facilities, content and programming with New Orleans’ indisputable standing as a world-class culinary & hospitality city. Beyond providing traditional training, education and R&D in the fields of culinary arts and hospitality, NOCHI aspires to elevate New Orleans to a position of thought leadership across multiple disciplines that intersect with food/hospitality for the purpose of creating rewarding careers and improving quality of life for its local citizens and the larger global community.

In 2014, NOCHI purchased the former ArtWorks building with the intent to renovate it into a state-of-the-art workforce training facility. The concept of a culinary and hospitality training facility was developed in response to two alarming trends in New Orleans: a shortage of trained restaurant staff, and high rates of both non-employment and underemployment, particularly among African-Americans—e.g., a 2013 study conducted by the Lindy Boggs Center for Community Literacy at Loyola University reported that 52 percent of African American working age men in New Orleans are not working.

In December, 2017, CGC and NOCHI closed on a $19M financing to renovate the ArtWorks facility, utilizing NMTC allocation provided by United Fund Advisors and Enhanced Capital, and a NMTC equity investment provided by Iberia Bank. The 93,000 sf facility will house a wide variety of programming, including Culinary Training Program, Workforce Training Programs, Enthusiasts Courses and Community Programming as well as Tulane’s Freeman School of Business new Hospitality Entrepreneurship programming.

As part of a cooperative endeavor agreement with New Orleans Convention Center, NOCHI is mandated to provide subsidized workforce training to between 100-500 students annually. These programs will range from “standardized” programs for industry-wide needs to employer-based custom training programs that NOCHI would help develop and execute.

Beyond the subsidized training they receive, NOCHI students will be able to take advantage of the school’s Educational Advisory Board, comprised of a wide representation of the local hospitality industry, who will oversee the customization of the curriculum to meet the needs of different types of participants, as well as of prospective employers, by adding field trips, job shadowing, guest speakers, and/or internship opportunities that can be arranged within less than a mile of NOCHI’s location.

Furthermore, NOCHI students will also be able to leverage NOCHI’s ties to the local hospitality industry to find a new position after graduation. While NOCHI’s facilities will provide for hands-on food and beverage learning lab space, the school’s proximity to hundreds of hotels allows for convenient access to real-world learning “lab” spaces for other hospitality positions.

Mesquite Library

December 20, 2017 by

Crescent Growth CApital (“CGC”) and the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District (“LVCCLD”) are pleased to announce the closing of a $10M NMTC financing, using allocation provided by the Clearinghouse CDFI, and a NMTC equity investment provided by Chase Bank. This new library project is one of LVCCLD’s new model libraries, aimed at providing a broad swath of community services and bringing the library into the 21st century.

The new 16,000 sf Mesquite Branch Library of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District lies in the heart of the rural community of Mesquite, population 17,059, located in Clark County, an 8,000 square mile county in southern Nevada. The community is 82 miles from Las Vegas NV, 20 miles from the Arizona border, 40 miles St. George UT, and 35 miles from the Paiute Reservation in Moapa, NV. Mesquite serves as a regional center for many functions. Children from nearby Arizona towns attend Mesquite’s Clark County School District schools.

Mesquite has been designated a priority need area for city, state and regional economic development and workforce agencies. The library site is located on the only CDBG block in Mesquite. The site is located within the City of Mesquite-designated Enterprise Zone and is in a rural area identified by Workforce Connections, the southern Nevada agency for employment, business and career support, as high need/low resource. Workforce Connections has provided a full-time onsite staff person to start-up and expand employment, business and career development services to scale when the new facility comes on line. Plans are now in progress to combine federal education, labor and library resources to conduct specific job training and OneStop services from this facility, along with English language instruction and citizenship.

Workforce Connections will provide staff, instruction and career coach expertise. The Library District will provide public access computers, laptops, Internet, Wifi, printers, scanners, copiers, and other office equipment, as well as a wealth of physical and virtual materials, information sources, databases and apps that support economic development and education. Once complete, the project will give the public access to a new community meeting room, consultation and study rooms with monitors, computer and instruction labs, and access to physical materials and virtual resources that ultimately make this library facility a community hub for economic, education and social well-being.

In this way, this project will prototype a new library model that combines free public access to technology and services for learning, training, making, entertaining, and gathering. It will also prototype a new kind of intergovernmental collaboration. As indicated above, the facility will integrate local, county, regional and state services for workforce, education, social services, citizenship, and libraries. Services provided free to the public here will support OneStop workforce services; small business development support; social service and government agency connections; early childhood development; parent engagement; student support such as homework help; English language, High School Equivalency, and literacy instruction; public computer, Internet and Wifi access; community and cultural events; and job training and certification programs related to the early childhood education sector.

This project will create an estimated 7 positions, while retaining another 15 existing positions. Full-time Mesquite library employees will receive a full set of benefits, including health insurance and retirement (Nevada PERS), which is valued at roughly 30% of salary. Full- and part-time employees are covered by Worker’s Comp.

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