City Wins $15M In Competitive Tax Credits

Press Release from the City’s website:

CITY WINS $15 MILLION IN COMPETITIVE TAX CREDITS PROGRAM FROM U.S. TREASURY
Funds Will Help City Support Development in Downtown and Commercial Corridors 

Mayor Tom Henry today announced the City had been notified it will receive $15 million in new markets tax credits. These funds from the U.S. Treasury will encourage private sector investment in distressed communities. Mayor Henry said the City’s application, under the name of Fort Wayne New Markets Revitalization Fund, LLC, targeted projects in the downtown and commercial corridor areas of our community.

“We are very pleased that our application was one of the 70 selected from nearly 240 submitted to the Treasury for this program,” said Mayor Henry. “We want to do all we can as a City to encourage the development and redevelopment projects that will boost our downtown neighborhoods and the commercial corridor areas of our community. This money will help bring new business and projects to areas in the heart of our community.”

The New Markets Tax Credit program is used as a piece of the financing package when real estate deals are being put together. Having the program available will mean more projects will be undertaken in our community, according to Sharon Feasel, executive director of the Fort Wayne New Markets Revitalization Fund, LLC. “Neighborhoods that have been eager for new business may now see developers interested and able to bring new opportunities to the area,” Feasel said.

The New Markets Tax Credits program was established by Congress in 2000 to allow individual and corporate taxpayers to receive a credit against their federal income taxes when they make a qualified investment in the community. A report based upon the data collected on NMTC investments between 2002 and 2007 found that in the relatively short period of time since its inception, the NMTC Program has become an increasingly popular and critical tool for facilitating the investment of private sector capital in low-income communities. It has induced an estimated $14 of investment for every $1 of federal tax revenue foregone as a result of the credit.