Since 2003, the bank and its affiliates have been a leader in the New Market Tax Credit, or NMTC financing arena. NMTC is a critical tool for City First in meeting its mission to help to build and sustain healthy low income communities. The NMTC program was created by Congress in 2000 as a tool to stimulate economic development in low income communities across the country. In 2008, the NMTC Program was recognized as one of the top 50 government programs for its innovation and efficiency. Administered by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, or CDFI Fund, of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the NMTC has become the premier government program to support community development work.
The NMTC allows City First to expand its capacity in several ways. Deals financed through NMTC structures can far exceed our legal lending limits. While our normal commercial lending limit is $3 million, to date, borrowers have received financing from $4 million to $21 million for high impact projects. NMTC financing helps to stimulate further private investments. Our investment of $14 million on the Tivoli Square project is an example. Tivoli Square marked the first large scale commercial development in Columbia Heights since the civil unrest in the 1960s destroyed that major commercial corridor. We also financed a mixed use project, Park Triangle which also features national tenants. Bringing in large retailers such as the Giant Food store and Ruby Tuesday created substantial jobs for community residents and equally as important, signaled a vital vote of confidence in the economic viability of the Columbia Heights community. The recently completed Grid project anchored by Target, Marshalls and other national retailers, as well as numerous new housing developments have followed City First into the Columbia Heights community as a direct result of our early investments. Some of our NMTC equity has been used to finance small businesses that lack sufficient financial strength to meet traditional underwriting standards. The subsidy of NMTC financing has allowed us to originate loans at below market interest rates, longer than normal interest only periods, longer amortization schedules, lower debt coverage ratios and higher loan to value standards. Finally, through the NMTC program, City First is better able to advance its community development mission with a large scale, flexible financing tool that leverages our existing commercial finance products.
The NMTC program leverages private investor equity for eligible community development activities in exchange for tax credits of 39% which are taken over a seven year span. City First has been involved in three rounds of NMTC authority totaling $203 million of which nearly $161 million has been deployed. Those closed deals leveraged an additional $377.3 million in private capital.
Closed transactions financed to date:
- $3.05 million loan pool for small businesses located in low income areas of Washington, DC for a variety of operating and start up costs
- $20 million combined with Historic Tax Credits for construction and mini-permanent financing of the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE, a multi-tenanted performing arts and studio venue
- Below market mini-permanent financing of $9.4 million for the Town Hall Education Arts and Recreation Campus, or THEARC on Mississippi Avenue, SE, a 110,000 square foot multi-purpose community facility located in one of the most critically underserved communities of DC
- Restoration of historic Tivoli theatre into Tivoli Square, a mixed use commercial, residential and performing arts complex on 14th Street in the Columbia Heights community of Washington, DC. Financing of $14.4 million was provided.
- $2.9 million investment in the restoration of a historic brewery, Gunther Bottle in the Brewers Hill community of Baltimore. This project is a mixed use office and retail complex that involved the adaptive reuse of the 48,750 square foot facility.
- $5.7 million in financing for the adaptive re-use of the former Noisette Naval Base located in a low income community with a poverty rate of over 60% into office and warehouse space in North Charleston, SC
- Park Triangle, a mixed use development of rental apartments, locally-owned restaurants and retail business, and a bank branch received $10 million in financing. It is located on 14th Street in the Columbia Heights community of Washington, D.C.
- Our first workforce housing financing involved $17 million for the construction of 98 for sale townhomes in a highly distressed community of SE Washington, 4th Street Vistas. Homes will be sold to families earning between 50% and 80% of the area median income.
- Through our minority interest in an allocation led by the Charter School Development Corporation, City First financed five charter schools including $14 million for 30 year, permanent financing of the Thurgood Marshall Public Charter School located on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in SE Washington. The total allocation was $40 million.
- Lyon Shipyard a $7 million allocation for acquisition and rehabilitation of deteriorating shipyard by adjoining shipyard in highly distressed area in Norfolk, VA. The financing saved 90 existing jobs and created an additional 100 new jobs.
- American Brewery, a $14 million allocation for the redevelopment of 30,000 sq foot brewhouse into offices along with a 60,000 sq ft warehouse that will be used for community service space for a statewide human services organization, Humanim. The project is located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Baltimore, MD, and will help spur revitalization of the surrounding area.
- Also in Baltimore, MD, we made a $4 million allocation for the redevelopment of an eight-story, 348,000 sq ft office/warehouse facility, the Raleigh Building. The building will be developed to house various nonprofit organizations and neighborhood based small businesses.
- $21 million allocation for the permanent financing of the newly constructed E. L. Haynes Public Charter School. The building will allow the school to expand from the kindergarten to K-12th grade. This award winning school is the first to establish a full year academic program. EL Haynes is located on Georgia Avenue, NW in Washington, DC.