The announcement of the New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) award has certainly enhanced the level of excitement and activity at Finance Fund. The 2009 award of $50 million added to the $20 million remaining from the 2008 award gives us a total of $70 million in NMTC to place in Ohio communities in 2010. Our NMTC funding has typically gone to non-profit or for profit clients creating jobs or economic impact in distress communities, and 2010 will be no different. Though this sounds like a substantial “chunk” of money, compared to the demand that we see in Ohio’s distressed communities the challenge will be deciding who gets to play with us.
The capital is targeted to either metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties or more specifically census tracts in those counties. For the NMTC program, a non-metro county is any county that DOES NOT have a contiguous border with a metropolitan service area. Finance Fund will invest $30 million in non-metro census tracts and $40 million in metro tracts.
Finance Fund has established a NMTC Strategic Investment Group (NSIG) that meets weekly to strategize, assess, and move the investment process forward. NSIG is comprised of staff from program, finance, and internal auditing divisions and is actively examining projects ready for investment. The expectation is that the metro capital will be deployed by the middle of the second quarter of 2010 and the non-metro by the end of the year.
To do this NSIG is resorting to one of Finance Fund’s core competencies, talking to people we know and making sure as many as possible are aware of the potential for investment in their communities. If you have an interest in this funding or want to talk to us, contact Chief Program Officer Moniqua Spencer at mspencer@financefund.org.
Tags: Finance Fund, New Markets Tax, NMTC
Please contact me at vheiby@financefund.org or 614-568-5055 if you would like more information or would like to discuss New Markets Tax Credits investment opportunities. Have a Blessed New Year!