Director Gambrell Joins Mayor Fenty at Grand Opening of a Child Care Center & Affordable Housing Redevelopment in Washington, DC

Director Gambrell Joins Mayor Fenty at Grand Opening
of a Child Care Center & Affordable Housing Redevelopment in Washington, DC

New Markets Tax Credit Program Used to Preserve 27 Affordable Housing Units
and Provide Flexible Child Care in Adams Morgan Neighborhood

Washington, DC – The U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund Director Donna J. Gambrell participated today in a grand opening celebration with Washington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty. 

Through the CDFI Fund’s New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program, over $9 million in critically needed capital was raised to redevelop the 85-year-old Ontario Court Apartments building.  This investment has provided the community with 27 affordable homes and a new early childhood development center in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, which is considered the heart of Washington’s Latino community.

“As a native Washingtonian, I am very proud to know the New Markets Tax Credit Program is at work in our city providing the critical piece of financing needed to complete vital projects such as Ontario Court,” said Director Gambrell.  “From the Tivoli Theater in Columbia Heights to the Giant grocery store in Anacostia, the New Markets Tax Credit Program is helping to transform many of our underserved neighborhoods.  This is especially important during these troubling economic times when the need for affordable housing and affordable child care are so great.”

The renovation transformed the Ontario Court into 27 new apartment homes: 6 one-bedroom units, 18 two-bedroom units, and 3 three–bedroom units.  The ground floor will house the new 4,000-square-foot Jubilee JumpStart Early Childhood Development Center, which will serve up to 50 children between the ages of six weeks and five years, with full day, night or weekend child care to accommodate the schedules of many local parents who are employed in shift work.

The NMTC Program enabled Enterprise Community Investment, Inc. of Columbia Maryland, which has received a total of $515 million in NMTC awards from the CDFI Fund, to partner with PNC Bank, PNC New Markets Investment Partners and the District of Columbia’s Department of Housing and Community Development to structure the financing deal that made possible the redevelopment of the Ontario Court building.

Since the NMTC Program’s creation in December 2000, the CDFI Fund has made 17 awards totaling over $1.4 billion to eight institutions headquartered in Washington, DC.  In addition, 37 different investments totaling over $144 million were made in projects, such as Ontario Court, across Washington, DC.  These investments leveraged total project costs of $583 million in direct investments to build charter schools, residential for-sale housing, shopping centers, and other projects and businesses.

Background on the NMTC Program

The NMTC Program, established by Congress in December 2000, permits individual and corporate taxpayers to receive a credit against federal income taxes for making qualified equity investments in Community Development Entities (CDEs).  The credit provided to the investor totals 39 percent of the cost of the investment and is claimed over a seven-year period.  Substantially all of the taxpayer’s investment must in turn be used by the CDE to make qualified investments in low-income communities.

The NMTC Program is administered by Treasury’s CDFI Fund.  In the six rounds to date, the CDFI Fund has made 364 allocation awards totaling $19.5 billion in tax credit authority, including $1 billion that was specifically set aside for recovery and redevelopment in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Additional information on the NMTC Program and the CDFI Fund can be found by visiting: www.cdfifund.gov.

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