FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 27, 2023
CONTACT: Lisa Patlis, (802) 861-3814
On Friday, September 22, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI) announced Evernorth Rural Ventures, a subsidiary of Evernorth, was awarded a $60 million allocation of New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) to continue its successful economic and community development work in low-income areas. This is Evernorth Rural Ventures’ 7th award.
This award will allow us to make investments that help preserve and create hundreds of jobs and spur economic growth in rural communities throughout northern New England,” said Evernorth’s President, Nancy Owens. “We work to strengthen rural and underserved low income communities and create opportunities for people to thrive where they live.”
The competition for the NMTC awards is intense. Of the 102 Community Development Entities (CDEs) that received awards this round – 48% were to national CDEs; 20% were to multi-state CDEs; and 20% of the CDEs receiving awards were rural CDEs. Evernorth Rural Ventures is a rural, multi-state CDE. Overall, 102 CDEs were selected from an applicant pool of 197 applicants.
Since 2008, Evernorth Rural Ventures has created $231 million in affordable capital to support $425 million in total development activity across 21 communities. Twenty-eight manufacturing, downtown real estate and essential service organizations and businesses have benefited from Evernorth Rural Ventures’ program, which has created and retained over 4,260 jobs and over 1,750 construction jobs.
Vice President of Community Investments, Beth Boutin said, “with this new award, Evernorth Rural Ventures will continue to invest in quality job-generating businesses to create living wage jobs, increase access to healthcare, address food insecurity, and ultimately revitalize and sustain rural and low income communities.”
Evernorth Rural Ventures was involved in two recent NMTC projects – one in New Hampshire and one in Vermont. The grand opening celebration for Hundred Nights’ newly expanded facility in Keene, NH took place on September 23. Evernorth Rural Ventures provided a $7.1M investment to expand the year-round, low-barrier emergency shelter and resource center, allowing them to increase their space doubling their shelter beds from 24 to 48 and improving housing conditions for guests. Last month, on August 14th, Evernorth Rural Ventures and Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation closed $11.4M in New Markets Tax Credit allocation for the redevelopment of the iconic “Yellow Barn” in Hardwick, VT. The NMTC funding supports the construction of a new 25,137 square foot food business accelerator building and the adaptive reuse of the vacant, historic 4,762 square foot yellow dairy barn for use as a retail shop.
Prospective NMTC projects generally need to be located in qualified census tracts. In 2020, Evernorth Rural Ventures expanded its service area to include all of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as four counties in western Massachusetts and two counties in northeastern New York.
If you are interested in learning more Evernorth Rural Ventures’ NMTC work, please contact Beth Boutin, Vice President of Community Investments at BBoutin@evernorthus.org or (802) 863-8424.
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Evernorth Rural Ventures, a qualified rural CDE, uses its NMTC resources to support investment in the economic, environmental, and social well-being of northern New England communities and its regional economies. Since 2008, Evernorth Rural Ventures has facilitated $231.4 million in affordable capital and $424.7 million in total development activity. That financing has provided 72,000 people in low income communities with access to higher education, healthcare, fitness and other social services; has created over 67,200 square feet of healthy food space, and 53 new apartments, 20% of which are affordable. The financing has supported 4,260 jobs and 1,750 construction jobs. Learn more about Evernorth Rural Ventures at www.evernorthus.org/financing-and-investing/evernorth-rural-ventures
About the New Markets Tax Credit Program. The New Markets Tax Credit Program, established by Congress in December 2000, permits individual and corporate taxpayers to receive a non-refundable tax credit against federal income taxes for making equity investments in financial intermediaries known as Community Development Entities (CDEs). CDEs that receive the tax credit allocation authority under the program are domestic corporations or partnerships that provide loans, investments, or financial counseling in low-income urban and rural communities. The tax credit provided to the investor totals 39% of the cost of the investment and is claimed over a seven-year period. The CDEs in turn use the capital raised to make investments in low-income communities. CDEs must apply annually to the CDFI Fund to compete for New Markets Tax Credit Program allocation authority. Since the inception of the NMTC Program, the CDFI Fund has completed 19 allocation rounds and has made 1,563 awards totaling $76 billion in tax allocation authority. This includes $3 billion in Recovery Act Awards and $1 billion of special allocation authority used for the recovery and redevelopment of the Gulf Opportunity Zone. To learn more about the New Markets Tax Credit Program, please visit www.cdfifund.gov/nmtc.
About the CDFI Fund Since its creation in 1994, the CDFI Fund has awarded more than $7.4 billion to CDFIs, community development organizations, and financial institutions through its funding programs, allocated more than $76 billion in tax credit allocation authority to Community Development Entities through the New Markets Tax Credit Program, and guaranteed bonds for more than $2.1 billion through the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program. To learn more about the CDFI Fund and its programs, please visit the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov.
