NDC President Bob Davenport set down NDC’s perspectives, observations and recommendations improving CRA in comments that can be downloaded here in PDF format or found on the government regulations website:  

There are 83 pages of submissions on the website.  Please click here, type in 23 at the bottom of the webpage and hit enter. NDC is listed midway on page 23.  Click the PDF and view the comment letter.

Read the complete article written by Jennifer Dockery, staff writer for Novogradac & Company LLP.

In an interview with Puget Sound Business Journal writer Kelly Gilblom, the acting director of the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development, Stephen Johnson, discussed the City’s efforts to boost its businesses, and the jobs they provide, through readily-available financing. He named the Grow Seattle-King County Fund, administered by NDC’s Grow America Fund (GAF), as one of the City’s initiatives to achieve that goal.

Established in 2009, the Grow Seattle-King County Fund was established with a $2 million joint investment by the Seattle Foundation, the City of Seattle, King County and GAF. Alpha Cine, a motion picture film processing company, was the first Seattle business to tap into the fund, using a unique financing structure to acquire and renovate a new space ideally suited to meet the business’s needs.

Read the Puget Sound Business Journal article.

New Markets Tax Credits filled a $3.2 million financing gap making the Main Street Parking Structure a reality in downtown Pueblo, CO.

The Urban Renewal Authority of Pueblo, Colorado (URAP) received a National Award of Merit from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) for its Main Street Parking Structure. The award for “Program Innovation - Community Revitalization,” was presented at NAHRO’s annual conference in Boston on July 22. New Markets Tax Credits, allocated by NDC’s HEDC New Markets, Inc., were used to close a $3.2 million financing gap for this $11.9 million project.  The 738-space garage helped lure an AT&T call center with 625 jobs to downtown Pueblo. The garage also encouraged the development of an additional 103,000 square feet of new space in five buildings on the city’s riverwalk, including residential units and ground level retail and restaurants that help the city reach its goal of making its downtown a 24-hour community.  Read more.

NDC’s small business loan program,  the Grow America Fund (GAF), has received an award from U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI) as part of its program to assist financial institutions serving struggling communities.  Recognizing GAF as a financial institution that plays ” a critical role financing small businesses and providing access to capital where it is needed most,” CDFI has awarded $750,000 to GAF that GAF President Pat Thomson said will be used in its nationwide lending program to increase capital for small businesses located in low-income communities.  Treasurer of the United States Rosie Rios noted that, “The awards we are announcing today will provide critical support to local financial institutions, which are on the front lines creating jobs and economic opportunity in communities across the country.” 

Read the full press release here.

The new Lutheran Community Services Northwest Facility in Seatac, WA consolidates the organization's critically-needed services on one state-of-the-art campus.

Lutheran Community Services Northwest (LCSNW) in Seatac, WA is one of the region’s largest social service providers, offering a full range of emotional, physical and spiritual health services in support of its mission to “partner with individuals, families and communities for health, justice and hope.”  LCSNW’s new 32,000 square foot facility provides a consolidated home for its King County operations, housing administrative offices, immigrant and refugee services, counseling, youth services, adoption and foster care programs, senior services, and disabilities services, a major health care facility and a state-of-the-art child care center. With an 80-unit independent senior housing project next door, this $9.2 million project, financed in part by NDC HEDC New Markets , Inc., will form an intergenerational campus, serving over 12,000 people every year.

QEI: $6.0 million
Total project cost: $9.2 million
Jobs created/retained: 76

Venice

Once an industrial powerhouse, Madison County today (population: 259,000) is a semi-rural county in southwestern Illinois, part of the “Metro East” suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri.  Madison County has been a client community of NDC for 14 years, with John Downs, NDC field director, providing technical assistance on variety of projects, that include NMTC, LIHTC, single family for-sale, economic development financing, and renewable energy.

This latest development is in the Madison County city of Venice (population: 2,500), where  MCHA decided to replace the obsolete Lee Wright Homes, a 1950’s era public housing complex.  The project demolished the old, existing units as the Meacham Crossing units become available, thus maximizing the opportunity for Lee Wright residents to move in.  While Madison County Housing Authority has been working with private developers using LIHTC and other resources to upgrade the quality of its affordable housing, this is the first project where MCHA is the developer and manager, a key step in their plan to insure the long term availability of high-quality, affordable housing. 

The 18-acre Meacham Crossing offers a variety of units: 10 one-bedroom; 55 two-bedroom; and 23 three-bedroom. The modified townhouse style apartments provide modern amenities in a secure setting, designed to maximize opportunities for kids to play while providing parents with convenience in supervising their children.  Meacham Crossing also has 8 market rate units.  All 78 units were rented within 5 months of construction completion.

The 78 apartments are arranged in 24 buildings, each apartment with a private entrance.  The units will be all electric, with high efficiency furnaces and central A/C.  Each apartment will be wired for high speed internet, cable TV and phone in all rooms. Apartments will have nine-foot ceilings, and bedrooms will have ceiling fans.  All units will have laundry areas with installed washers and dryers.

Babylon (Suffolk County), NY:  Long Island, New York: the name conjures images of leafy commuter suburbs - communities first shaped by the path of commuter rail, then re-shaped by the paths of highways as public policies favoring the automobile overtook rail as the dominant mode of transportation.  Rail-oriented development, concentrated around stations, gave way to the sprawl of development served by highways.  Wyandanch, a rail-centered hamlet in the Town of Babylon, faded.  Vacant, underutilized land, obsolete improvements and brownfields give testimony to better days.

But not tomorrow. That’s because the Town of Babylon intends to leverage Wyandanch’s main asset, a train station on the Long Island Railroad line, and breathe new life into this south shore community. Town officials are planning a multi-phase, 134-acre project - a transit-oriented development - guided by the principles of “smart growth” and aided by a diverse financing plan. The Town’s efforts were recognized by the State of New York, which designated Wyandanch as one of three “spotlight communities,” an initiative designed to demonstrate how existing state programs can support and complement local efforts to redevelop brownfields and achieve neighborhood revitalization and smart growth.  

NDC’s field director Kevin Gremse, a Long Island native, has provided the Town of Babylon, an NDC client community, with planning and financing expertise that is helping to guide the complex project.

NDC’s financial modeling determined that a full range of economic development financial programs will be needed to cover the development costs of the first phase of a plan that has been created by Torti Gallas, an urban design and architectural firm widely experienced with large-scale mixed-use developments. Among the possible public financing tools that will potentially be used on the development are: New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs),  Recovery Zone Facility Bonds; HUD Section 108 loan guarantee; Brownfields Economic Development Initiative; Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC); HOME; and various State of New York  subsidies.

The first phase of this project is a $61 million, mixed-use development with 150 mixed-income housing units and 40,000 square feet of retail, and a community health center. A triangular “village green” will become a focal point and public gathering place.

NDC’s role for the balance of the first phase redevelopment will be to evaluate the financial feasibility of the development plans, select the most experienced and capable development team, and determine the most appropriate development tools to be used as part of a complex financial structure. NDC will also assist with the solicitation and selection of the development team for the targeted development site and assist in negotiating the terms of the Land Disposition Agreement(s) for land made available to the development by the Town. For the community health center, the Town of Babylon has requested that NDC’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (HEDC) develop the 34,000 s.f., $13 million facility, using its public-private financing and development model.

NDC field director Gremse says: “NDC is very pleased to be working with the Town of Babylon and the Wyandanch community because it has the essential ingredients for redevelopment success: motivated political leadership under the direction of Supervisor Steve Bellone, pledged public infrastructure investment, coordinated and strategic state support, and community-based smart planning under a nationally renowned planning and design team.”   

 The development plan will be completed in the fall and the Town expects to issue requests for proposals shortly thereafter.

“This session will give practitioners a solid foundation in real estate finance, specifically the challenges of developing and marketing a reclaimed brownfield. It’s not just the environmental remediation but effective collateralizing and risk mitigation of brownfield sites that make redevelopment of these parcels successful. This training will help those on the ground struggling to make these sites marketable make that critical connection.”  George Carico, Center Program Coordinator at Marshall University, agrees. “There is a broad spectrum of stakeholders involved in these projects with widely divergent backgrounds. Linking the environmental and economic issues will help us as we continue our work to turn brownfields into viable properties.”  NDC looks forward to working with BB&T and the Brownfields Assistance Center to develop this class and provide a valuable capacity building opportunity in West Virginia.