Enterprise Community Investment Wins More New Markets Tax Credits

Columbia, Md.–The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI) has awarded Enterprise Community Investment Inc. an additional $62 million in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC). The allocation will allow Enterprise to offer financing at low interest rates and flexible repayment terms to affordable housing and other projects that often find it difficult to obtain conventional financing.

Enterprise is one of 99 of the organizations–designated Community Development Entities by the government–receiving an allocation of the $3.5 billion in NMTCs awarded as part of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Authorization and Job Creation Act of 2010. The new allocation brings Enterprise’s total NMTC awards to $672 million, $595.5 million of which has previously been invested in low-income areas nationwide, making the company one of the largest recipients of NMTCs in the country.

Thus far, Enterprise has invested in 48 projects in 19 states and the District of Columbia with development costs totaling more than $3.4 billion. These developments include the creation or rehab of 3,500 multifamily units, as well as 7.3 million square feet of new or rehabilitated commercial space. Currently, 92 percent of Enterprise’s investments exceed NMTC regulations by being located in census tracts that the CDFI Fund defines as “areas of higher distress.”

Consistent with the Enterprise Green Communities NMTC Program, each of the financed projects, as part of the financing agreement with borrowers, must incorporate environmentally sensitive practices. Many previous projects funded by Enterprise through NMTCs meet environmentally sustainable standards, such as those of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System.

Last year was the 15th year of the CDFI Fund, and in 2010 it made more awards than in any other year. The fund processed about 1,300 applications for funding, and announced a total of 425 awards—an increase of 22 percent over 2009.

The fiscal 2012 budget passed by the House of Representatives last month would cut the CDFI’s funding by 81.8 percent. According to CDFI Fund Director Donna Gambrell, speaking Tuesday at the CDFI Coalition’s 2011 CDFI Institute, such a cut would devastate the fund’s operations. Among other things, it would reduce the number of affordable housing units financed by more than 14,100 per year.