MassDevelopment Secures $55 Million in Federal Tax Credits to Encourage Private Investment in Distressed Communities

October 30, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Kelsey Abbruzzese, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2086

MassDevelopment announced today that it has been chosen by the United States Treasury Department to allocate New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) on $55 million of private investment in Massachusetts. The credits are used to attract private-sector capital investment in the Commonwealth’s urban and rural low-income communities.

The agency was one of 249 applicants competing for $5 billion in tax credit allocations. Of these applicants, 99 were successful nationwide, and MassDevelopment was one of only three recipients in Massachusetts. The credits will allow MassDevelopment to leverage tax credit equity from investors, offering low-cost financing to businesses and nonprofit organizations in eligible census tracts around the Commonwealth.

“New Markets Tax Credits provide an innovative funding source for a variety of local businesses and organizations,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Robert L. Culver. “Our team has been able to use these credits in the past to support everything from manufacturing to museums. Organizations throughout Massachusetts have used these funds for new construction and renovation, and we appreciate the federal government’s faith in MassDevelopment that allows us to supply this financing.”

Through seven rounds of the NMTC Program, the U.S. Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which administers the program, has made 495 awards, totaling $26 billion in tax credit allocation authority. MassDevelopment has received two prior NMTC allocations, which totaled $100 million. Since 2004, MassDevelopment has used its allocation to fund major redevelopment projects at Boston Medical Center, Fenway Community Health, and the Coalition for Buzzards Bay in New Bedford, and to create a $30 million, first-in-New-England New Markets Loan Fund that draws on capital from partnerships with Citizens and Sovereign banks.

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development authority, works with businesses, financial institutions, and local officials to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY2008, MassDevelopment financed or managed 265 projects statewide representing an investment of more than $3 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are supporting the creation of 4,001 housing units and more than 10,384 jobs: 5,424 permanent and 4,960 construction-related.