Arkansas Capital Corporation Awarded $35 Million in Federal New Markets Tax Credits Allocation

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The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI) announced this week that Arkansas Capital Corporation, a CDFI Community Development Entity, is one of 73 applicants selected nationwide to share a total of $3.5 billion in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) for providing financing to low-income communities resulting in economic impacts, job creation, and other community benefits to these distressed areas.

Arkansas Capital Corporation is the only CDE in Arkansas to be awarded NMTCs in this round of allocations. It is the sixth award of allocations for Arkansas Capital Corporation since NMTCs were first awarded in 2003. The announcement brings to $300 million the total amount of NMTCs awarded to Arkansas Capital Corporation to grow business and economic investments into distressed communities in Arkansas and bordering states.

“Through the $265 million in NMTC allocations we’ve received in the previous five rounds, Arkansas Capital Corporation and our partners have produced 1,777 direct jobs and 924 construction jobs in the most distressed census tracts in our state,” said Sam Walls, president of Arkansas Capital Corporation. “These jobs are part of more than 30 projects deployed so far. With our local and state partners, we’ve been able to finance rural manufacturing operations, nonprofit, and educational facilities; and rehabilitated historic buildings in abandoned Main Street corridors,” he said.

Walls continued, “Arkansas Capital Corporation is always looking for impactful projects in Arkansas, especially in low-income areas, where local officials are struggling to find capital for projects to grow their economies, provide jobs, and overall increase the well-being of their communities. The NMTC program is a perfect opportunity to use tax credits to drive investments into the most underserved census tracts.”

Walls says successful deployment of NMTCs is not possible without local and state partners from both the public and private sectors. “Partnerships are key. We must rely on local officials to give us guidance on what projects are needed in their communities that have the most impact and be the best for the long term.”

Walls expects the new round of NMTCs will be deployed by this fall.

Arkansas Capital Corporation and its companies have worked since 1957 to offer flexible capital solutions to meet the unique needs of entrepreneurs, small businesses and other commercial projects underserved by traditional lenders. The NMTC program is an example of Arkansas Capital Corporation’s unique ability to work with the public and private sector to structure innovative financial products that promote catalytic economic development for Arkansas. Since 2010, through more than 200 transactions, Arkansas Capital Corporation has invested $443 million into Arkansas with the following outcomes:

  • More than 7,300 direct jobs supported across Arkansas Capital Corporation’s various loan products.
  • A $2.3 billion direct financial impact.
  • More than $74 million in tax revenue generated for the state.

“New Markets Tax Credits are a phenomenal program,” said Walls. “We are proud to have been able to bring them to the state.”

To read the U.S. Treasury’s New Markets Tax Credits Award Report, click here.

Heartland Renaissance Q & A with Christa Clark

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Heartland Renaissance Q & A with Christa Clark

Arkansas Capital is proud to announce that its CDE, Heartland Renaissance Fund, LLC, has been awarded a $65 million allocation in New Markets Tax Credits to foster investment in businesses and economic activities in low income and underserved communities throughout Arkansas. This allocation is the second-largest amount Heartland has ever been awarded. To learn more about this momentous occasion, we enlisted Christa Clark, Vice President of Heartland Renaissance Fund, to answer a few questions about the allocation, and give some insight on what how this money will change Arkansas communities for the better.

Q: What was your process for receiving the allocation?

A: New Market allocations are awarded by the Dept. of Treasury’s Community Development Institutions Funds in a competitive process each year. Heartland staff spends several weeks completing the application and analyzing the impacts from our prior investments when submitting the application. The applications are reviewed by third parties and by U.S. Treasury staff and scored.  Historically, only about 28% of applicants are awarded allocation in a given year in this highly competitive process. We are always honored when we are selected, as there are always over 200 other CDEs in the applicant pool with us. We are especially thrilled this year that this is our fifth award of allocation.

Q: What areas of Arkansas has Heartland worked most with in the past? What areas do you foresee benefiting from these funds?

A: Heartland focuses almost exclusively on investing in Arkansas’ low-income communities throughout the state.  We focus on areas that are underserved by traditional financing sources and direct our investments in the projects that have the most community and economic impacts to that area. As with prior allocations, Heartland will make investments statewide with at least half of its transactions in rural areas.

Q: What industries typically see the most benefit from these allocations?

A: That is one of the benefits of a flexible lending product like New Markets Tax Credits – we can use the funds to finance a variety of projects.  We have financed a wide range of projects with New Markets, everything from educational facilities to non-profits and large rural manufacturing. We will continue to focus on our three core areas of education, health care, and economic development projects throughout the state.

Q: What has been one of your most rewarding experiences working with Heartland?

A: It is hard to narrow that down to one. We have so many projects that I have been blessed to work with that are improving their communities. There was one manufacturing project that we worked several months to bring to financial closing that was located in a town in the Arkansas Delta with very high unemployment and had several large employers that had closed down in recent years.  When the project was about to open, I was doing a site visit and the company brought in BBQ and we ate with the newly hired plant workers in the cafeteria. The plant manager stood and thanked me, and explained how grateful they all were that they had jobs again and were able to provide for their families.

Q: How have you seen Heartland’s work positively impact the underserved businesses, the communities of underserved businesses and the entire state? 

A: There have been so many benefits to underserved areas from our investments.  Our New Markets financing was used to build a state-of-the-art life skills and work training facility for disabled adults in northwest Arkansas.  We have seen hundreds of first generation students attend college for the first time. There has been thousands of quality jobs created in Arkansas’ manufacturing sector that are located in some of the most economically disadvantaged areas throughout the state. Our investments have enabled environmentally-sustainable products to be produced here in Arkansas and have revitalized Main Streets transforming once shuttered properties into vibrant city centers.We continue to see positive impacts for years after we close a transaction as these investments serve as catalysts for economic growth in these communities.

E-Waste Mining Center Digs Up NMTCs

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  Download pdf: E-Waste Mining Center Digs Up NMTCs BlueOakA new electronic waste (e-waste) recycling center under construction in Osceola, Ark., has project partners calling it “the place where the Silicon Valley meets the Mississippi Delta.” Developed by California-based BlueOak Resources Inc. using federal new markets tax credit (NMTC) financing, the BlueOak Arkansas facility will use a high-temperature furnace to extract precious metals found in electronics, such as circuit boards and cell phones. Priv Bradoo, BlueOak’s co-founder and CEO, said that the concentration of precious metals in electronic scrap, such as printed circuit boards, is more than 100 times greater than precious metals in the same amount of virgin ore. With more than 50 million tons of e-waste being generated around the world every year, she said people have a responsibility to recognize these waste streams as a valuable resource. Bradoo said the Osceola facility will be the first of its kind in the United States dedicated to recovering high-value metals from electronic scrap. Once BlueOak begins operations at the end of 2015, it will be able to process at least 15 million pounds of e-waste annually with technology designed to be both efficient and environmentally friendly. “If the BlueOak technology works, it will not only lessen environmental degradation resulting from mining, it will also dramatically lower the amount of harmful pollutants emitted from current recycling processes, as well as drastically reduce the toxic exposure currently confronted by individuals involved in e-waste recycling around the globe–many of whom are already suffering from living in deep poverty,” said Deborah La Franchi, president of National New Markets Funds, which was one of BlueOak’s NMTC allocatees. [Read more…]

CDFI Fund Launches New Mapping System, Helps CDEs Transition

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CDFI Fund CIMS Mapping ToolThe Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund today launched the latest version of its CDFI Information Mapping System (CIMS3). The web-based tool allows organizations interested in getting certified as a CDFI or community development entity (CDE), or those interested in applying to one of the CDFI Fund’s award programs, to plot their eligible service areas and investments. [Read more…]

Mann on Main Project Opens Today

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Mann on MainDoyle Rogers Company and Moses Tucker Real Estate will be officially opening the doors of its Mann on Main mixed use (office/residential/retail) asset, the fully restored and redeveloped former Blass Department Store at Main & 4th Streets, Downtown Little Rock, event begins at 10:00 am, Thursday, September 5th. Leaders from the project and executives of the firm will be in attendance, as well as the structure’s many office tenants and Arkansas Governor Michael Beebe, Mayor Mark Stodola, and Ms. Anne Laidlaw will be guests of honor. Joint venture development partners, Moses Tucker Real Estate, Inc. and Doyle Rogers Company are announcing the completion of Mann on Main (Project), a major, mixed use redevelopment project on Little Rock’s historic Main Street. The development was a collaboration of efforts and resources of the two established commercial real estate groups, both of which have long affected the skyline of downtown Little Rock and both catalysts for downtown growth and reinvestment. The property consists of the Mann Building, a 90,000 square foot office building at the corner of 4th and Main Streets, Mann Lofts, a 30,000 square foot multifamily residential component, theground floor retail of both buildings, and a 4 level parking garage at the corner of Louisiana and 4th Streets. [Read more…]

Developers Mark Opening of Mann on Main in Little Rock

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Mann on Main Doyle Rogers Co. and Moses Tucker Real Estate on Thursday marked the grand opening of its Mann on Main mixed-use building, the fully restored and redeveloped former Blass Department Store at Main and 4th streets in downtown Little Rock. The $22 million project includes the Mann Building, a 90,000-SF office building at the corner of 4th and Main; the Mann Lofts, a 30,000-SF multifamily residential component; the ground floor retail of both buildings; and a four-level parking garage at the corner of Louisiana and 4th streets. [Read more…]

$22 million Main Street redevelopment project dedicated

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Mann on Main
PHOTO BY GAVIN LESNICK
A crowd is gathered for the dedication of the Mann on Main, a $22 million effort to redevelop the seven-story structure at left and the three-story adjoining annex to the right.
A $22 million redevelopment of a historic structure on Little Rock’s Main Street was formally dedicated Thursday, the latest effort in an ongoing process to revitalize the once active downtown stretch. The Mann on Main project in the former Blass Department Store at Fourth and Main streets was opened during a ceremony that featured Gov. Mike Beebe and Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, who both stressed the importance of bringing life back to the once-thriving area. It’s been plagued in more recent years by vacant structures and boarded-up windows. “Main Street was and is the most important street in the state of Arkansas,” Stodola said. “It’s a crossroads to the capital. It’s the crossroads to the river. It’s the crossroads to the excitement and activity that downtowns bring to a community.” [Read more…]

Heartland Renaissance Fund Names Becka Webb Vice President

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Becka WebbHeartland Renaissance Fund, an affiliate of The Arkansas Capital Corporation Group, is pleased to name Becka Webb as vice president. Webb will focus on implementing state and federal New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocations through Heartland. Heartland has $200 million in federal and a recently announced $19 million in state NMTC allocations. “Becka will be focused on working with clients on the implementation of New Markets Tax Credit allocations in disadvantaged areas of the state,” said Sam Walls III, president, Heartland Renaissance Fund. “Her financial background, along with her experience in lending, is a great fit for our organization, which is focused on job creation and helping businesses expand in Arkansas.” [Read more…]

New Markets Tax Credits Deal Done

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In the latest legislative session, Arkansas lawmakers passed a measure touted as a jobs creator, the Arkansas New Markets Job Act. The bill encouraged private sector investment in small businesses, particularly in low-income regions, by providing tax credits tied to private capital investments including at existing businesses. On Tuesday (July 9), Heartland Renaissance Fund, an affiliate of The Arkansas Capital Corporation Group, said it will provide $10 million in New Markets Tax Credits to SGL Group’s Ozark, Ark. manufacturing facility.  Heartland’s investment is part of a federal new markets program, as the state’s version does not go into effect until July 15. [Read more…]

SGL Group Invests Through Use of New Markets Tax Credit Program

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Heartland Renaissance Fun, an affiliate of The Arkansas Capital Corporation Group, is set to provide $10 million in New Markets Tax Credits to SGL Group’s Ozark, Ark. manufacturing facility to replace the current operations with a new state-of-the-art graphitization process for the manufacture of graphite electrodes, which are used for the production of steel in electric arc furnaces. The $10 million New Markets Tax Credit financing is part of a $26 million overall investment at the plant. This investment will yield cleaner technology, reduce energy consumption by approximately 20% and have a considerable impact on the competitive position of SGL Group, as well as allow the company to retain jobs and strategically position themselves for the future in Ozark. SGL Group’s Ozark plant, which began operations in 1981, employs more than 90 people with substantially higher wages than the average of Franklin County. [Read more…]

Heartland Fund of Little Rock Invests $10M in SGL’s Ozark Plant

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Heartland Renaissance Fund of Little Rock announced Tuesday that it will invest $10 million in a new SGL Group facility in Ozark. SGL manufactures graphite and carbon electrodes and other carbon-based products. Its Ozark operation, opened in 1981, employs roughly 90. Heartland’s investment is a part of a $26 million overhaul of the Ozark plant, announced in April, that it says will replace current operations with a state-of-the-art graphitization process for the manufacture of graphite electrodes, used for the production of steel in electric arc furnaces. The new plant is expected to be completed by June 2015. [Read more…]