LISC Wins $140 Million In "New Markets" Investment Authority
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
Represents largest award to nonprofit in fourth round of NMTC allocations The U.S. Treasury Department has awarded Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) that will generate $140 million in investments to help spur economic development in disinvested communities across the country.
"This New Markets award builds on the $7 billion LISC has already invested in to low- and moderate-income neighborhoods over the last 25 years," noted Michael Rubinger, LISC's president and CEO. LISC expects to make an additional $1 billion in community-focused grants, loans and equity investments in 2006.
"We have already deployed most of the $155 million we raised from our previous NMTC allocations to support the development of more than 1.1 million square feet of commercial space, 130 new homes and 5,200 jobs that otherwise would not exist," Rubinger explained.
NMTC's which were first allocated in 2002 have already proven themselves to be a highly efficient means of attracting additional private capital to community revitalization efforts, and represent a growing piece of the 27 million square feet of retail and community space LISC has financed over the years.
Specifically, LISC has closed on 15 NMTC projects to date, ranging from the redevelopment of a historic Buffalo church into gallery/office/performance space, to the financing of a motorcycle parts manufacturer in rural Wisconsin, to the construction of a senior community center and new commercial space in Seattle's historic Pike Place Market.
In this case, the Pike Place commercial and community space is part of an ambitious initiative that also includes affordable senior apartments financed in part with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits syndicated by the LISC affiliate, National Equity Fund (NEF).
