ST. LOUIS, MO - USBCDE, LLC, U.S. Bank's Community Development Entity (CDE), recently received $95 million in New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocation authority from the U.S. Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), bringing its total allocation awards to date to $435 million. With this allocation, USBCDE will continue to support its financing activities to for-profit and non-profit operating businesses and developers of mixed use real estate, including office, industrial, retail, and community facilities in distressed and underserved areas in low income communities throughout the nation.
Since 2006, USBCDE has financed 41 NMTC projects in 22 states and 34 cities and towns across the country. Some of the diverse projects that USBCDE has been able to finance with its allocation awards include the: Construction of a small business incubator focused on assisting growing IT firms in Tacoma, WA; Transformation of an abandoned ironworks building into a much needed east-side Madison, WI community center; Renovation of an abandoned motel and property to provide transitional housing and substance abuse treatment services for women recently released from prison in Fresno, CA; Completion of a nonprofit school dedicated entirely to the needs of children whose families are homeless, in transition and experiencing chronic poverty-related crises in Portland, OR; Development of a "green" employee-owned commercial laundry facility in Cleveland, OH; Renovation of an historic F.W. Woolworth store into an International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro, NC.
U.S. Bank's commitment to the NMTC Program is evidenced by its receipt of the largest NMTC allocation award among all financial institutions that have a CDE. In addition, U.S. Bank serves as the most active NMTC investor in the nation through its subsidiary U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation (USBCDC). Since 2003, USBCDC has invested over $2 billion in NMTC equity to over 470 qualifying projects.
Zack Boyers, chairman and chief executive officer of USBCDC noted, "Through our role as both a tax credit investor and as a CDE, we are pleased to continue to be active participants in the NMTC Program. We are committed to being agents of positive change in distressed communities across America, and collaborating with like-minded CDE partners who are dedicated to using private capital for social good."
USBCDE's 2009 allocation award is part of a $5 billion NMTC package recently announced by the CDFI Fund. The NMTC Program serves as a catalyst to encourage investment of private capital in urban and rural low-income communities, allowing taxpaying investors to receive a credit against federal income taxes for making qualified equity investments in designated CDEs ($100 of qualified investments generates $39 in tax credits). Substantially all of the qualified equity investments must in turn be used by the CDE to provide investments in low-income communities. To date, the CDFI Fund has made awards totaling $26 billion in allocation authority.
With assets of over $6 billion, U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation (USBCDC) finances community development and affordable housing projects through the use of New Markets, Historic, Low-Income Housing, and Renewable Energy Investment tax credits. USBCDC is the largest New Markets tax credit investor in the country, investing billions of dollars nationwide in hundreds of transactions. These equity investments have provided much needed revitalization and new resources to communities throughout the country.
Source: U.S. Bancorp