Blog
Event Sponsored by Abundant Communities Together, Inc.
NDC Field Director Regina Celestin will participate in a panel discussion at “The Emerging Green Economy: Access & Opportunity for Diverse Communities,” a seminar to be held on Friday, May 21 at the Melville TI Building (68 S. Service Road) in Melville (Nassau County, Long Island), New York. The panel discussion, which includes a Q&A session, is titled, “How to Green Up Your Building & Find the Money to Do It.” (more…)
X2O Xaviar's Restaurant is at the heart of the Yonkers Pier restoration.
Peter X. Kelly, accomplished chef and owner of X2O Xaviar’s Restaurant on the renovated Yonkers Pier, has been nominated for the prestigious Best Chef Northeast award presented the James Beard Foundation. Considered the Oscars of cooking, Kelly’s nomination through a public voting process was confirmed by secret ballot by culinary professionals. The winner will be announced May 3.
X2O Xaviar’s Restaurant is the crown jewel in the Yonkers Pier revitalization. NDC and community partner, the City of Yonkers, used New Markets Tax Credits in combination with a HUD Section 108 loan to bring the project to fruition. Read more about the Yonkers Pier project.
Grow America Fund’s Yvon Alexandre Organizing Relief Fund and Medical Mission March 8-13
Donate Now to Help Provide Critically-Needed Supplies
(Hartford, CT) - We’ve all been stunned by the initial and continuing accounts of the devastating earthquake that struck the island nation of Haiti and left more than 212,000 dead, and another 1 million homeless.
The staggering impact of the earthquake on his native homeland has moved Grow America Fund borrower Yvon Alexandre to take action. He has put his extraordinary entrepreneurial skills to work by organizing a response to the catastrophe, under the auspices of the Connecticut Haitian American Organization, Inc. (CHAO), a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization.
To date, CHAO has collected more than $29,000 and over 30,000 pounds of supplies for the earthquake survivors, including food, water, clothing, medicine and personal hygiene items. But more is desperately needed. Now, Alexandre, through CHAO, is mounting a medical mission to Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, scheduled for March 8 through 13. To date, Alexandre says CHAO has received commitments from 18-20 physicians, nurses and others who will pay $1,000 a piece to cover their own transportation and lodging in order to take part in the humanitarian effort. Among the volunteers are a team of five prosthetics experts volunteering on behalf of The Pakistani American Association of Connecticut (PAACT). The team will be able to fit survivors, mostly children, with artificial limbs.
Alexandre says additional funds are greatly needed to purchase and to ship much needed first aid items, pain relievers, and toiletries. If you would like to donate to the CT Haitian American Organization, Inc.’s humanitarian efforts in Haiti, plese click here for information.
Donations can also be mailed to:
CT Haitian Earthquake Relief Fund
P.O. Box 290161
Wethersfield, CT 06129
For general comments and questions, please visit CHAO’s website or e-mail info@ctforhaiti.org.
The Steelworks Museum showcases the industry that helped build Pueblo and Colorado during the early part of the 20th century.
Colorado Fuel and Iron was once one of the largest integrated steel mills in the country and was Pueblo, Colorado’s primary industry. With the drastic decline in the American steel industry in the 1970’s and 1980’s, however, the steel mill was mostly abandoned. Pueblo’s south side, which was once the company town of Bessemer and home to the mill , quickly declined. Today, Pueblo’s renewal strategy includes an emphasis on tourism and economic diversification, and they have made major investment in support of that plan. Through NDC’s Corporate Equity Fund and HEDC-New Markets, Historic Rehabilitation and New Markets Tax Credit equity completed the financing puzzle for the City, providing the Bessemer Historical Society with the dollars to transform Colorado Fuel and Iron’s historic mill into the Steelworks Musem. Now open, the musem attracts tourists and pays tribute to Colorado’s steel industry. The museum also houses archives for CF&I, a steel company that continues to use the original grounds.
DIS staff cheer as ground is broken on the new DIS office building and data center in Olympia, Washington.
Construction of the State of Washington’s new Department of Information Services (DIS) building in Olympia has commenced and brought with it desperately needed jobs. The $225 million project, financed through NDC HEDC’s public-private financing model, includes an underground parking garage and state-of-the-art data center which will house nearly all DIS employees and bring the State’s computing technology and capacity well into the 21st century.
Read more about the project and its immediate impact on the construction industry in Olympia.
The renovated Yonkers Pier, in Yonkers, New York, and its renowned restaurant, Peter Kelly’s X2O, were recognized on Thursday, October 22, 2009 by The Novogradac Community Development Foundation (NCDF) at its Second Annual Community Development Awards luncheon held in Chicago, Ill. The project, financed through NDC’s HEDC New Markets Inc., received the award as the best New Markets Tax Credits project in the Operating Business category. (more…)
Bob Davenport, President, National Development Council
On March 4, 2009, NDC President Bob Davenport testified before the House Financial Services Subcommittee onFinancial Institutions and Consumer Credit about the effects of the economic downturn on small business lending, particularly the drastic reduction in small business credit from traditional bank lenders. Noting that economic recovery cannot occur until small businesses have the capital and credit they need, Davenport made a number of recommendations that would address this problem.
In a meeting later that spring with staff of the President’s National Economic Council, Davenport made similar recommendations.
On Wednesday October 21, President Obama announced a sweeping initiative to improve access to credit for small businesses, and we are pleased to note that NDC’s key recommendations are incorporated into the President’s program.
Two of the most important are: providing low-cost capital to Community Development Financial Institutions and increasing the lending limit on SBA’s 7A loans from $2 million to $5 million.
For more of Davenport’s recommendations and the President’s program, please read the Testimony of Bob Davenport before the Housing Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit and President Obama’s Announcement of New Efforts to Improve Access to Credit for Small Businesses.
Edmonds Community College Lobby - Grand Opening
A grand opening celebration was held on Friday, October 16th, for Rainier Place, the new Edmonds Community College single-student housing facility. About 100 people gathered to mark the successful completion of Rainier Place. (more…)
HUD has awarded to NDC and its consortium partners, Housing Partnership Network, National Cooperative Bank Capital Impact and Mercy Housing, Inc. a technical assistance grant of $7,143,123 to help communities better manage the backlog of foreclosed homes under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
For more information: http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr09-159.cfm.
Communities undertaking an NSP program may find the Community Central website a useful resource in their program development.
For Immediate Release
MAYOR BOOKER AND BRICK CITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION CUT THE RIBBON ON DENTAL KIDZ, A NEW PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY IN DOWNTOWN NEWARK
Local husband and wife team open 8,000 square foot state-of-the-art pediatric dentistry and orthodontic practice; $710,000 project financed by the Grow Newark Fund
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at Dental Kidz
Newark, NJ - October 13, 2009 - Mayor Cory A. Booker was joined today by Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Stefan Pryor, Brick City Development Corporation Executive Vice President Darryl Godfrey, Grow America Fund (GAF) President Pat Thomson and Loan Officer Charlie Giuliano, and Christopher and Dr. Lezli Harvell, Newark residents and BCDC Grow Newark Fund Recipients, to mark the opening of Dental Kidz, a new pediatric dentistry and orthodontic practice at 24 Commerce Street, in the City of Newark’s downtown district. GAF, NDC’s small business lending program is partnering with Brick City Development Corporation to make credit available to qualified small businesses in Newark. (more…)
Pat Thomson
Pat Thomson, President of NDC’s small business lending company, Grow America Fund (GAF), was part of a panel of experts for the recent webinar, “SBA Lending Programs and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.” Thomson’s presentation, “Small Business Lending in the New Environment,” described GAF’s business model and provided lenders with advice on identifying lending partners and surviving the current credit environment.
FYI Ground Breaking Ceremony
The State of Washington is preparing to take a major leap forward with a new 362,000 square-foot headquarters for its Department of Information Services (DIS). On Thursday, August 20, 2009 ground was broken for a new data center and office building, to consolidate all of the Department’s now scattered operations into one location. (more…)
Alpha Cine owner Don Jensen partnered with NDC’s GAF to acquire and renovate a new facility to meet Alpha Cine’s unique needs.
Alpha Cine, a motion picture film processing company, has been a cornerstone of the United States’ film industry since its inception in 1964. As film and video technology have evolved, so has the company, expanding its capacity and updating its processes to keep pace with the needs of the industry. Originally occupying the entire ground floor of a 100-year old building in Seattle, Alpha Cine had nowhere to go but up, employing makeshift plumbing and ventilation systems as it went along to accommodate the chemical processes required in its film processing. (more…)
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