Cincinnati development agencies secure $75M in New Markets Tax Credits

Two prominent Cincinnati development agencies have just landed $75 million in New Markets Tax Credits from the U.S. Treasury Department that will go a long way in helping complete development projects in Cincinnati's Uptown neighborhoods and elsewhere throughout the city.

Cincinnati Development Fund was awarded $30 million and intends to use the funds on projects in Downtown, Over-the-Rhine and Uptown.  The Uptown Consortium received a $45 million allocation which will go a long way towards making the redevelopment efforts along Short Vine a reality.

Cincinnati Development Fund (CDF) leaders say that the New Markets program enables agencies like CDF to finance projects by selling the tax credits to investors and using the proceeds as equity in the particular project.  Jeanne Golliher, Executive Director of CDF, went on to say that the first projects that are ready to go will most likely receive the money that CDF was awarded.

"Part of the allocation agreement, for the tax credits, was that the projects must be done within two years," said Golliher who believes that using the money in a quick and effective manner will go a long way for the development agency the next time around.

"We have already had requests since the announcement that would use up the entire allocation we received," said Golliher.  "We really want to use the money quickly and then go back for some more."

Each year the Treasury Department receives huge amounts of requests through the New Markets application process.  This year alone the Treasury Department received more than four times the amount of requests than it had money to allocate.  This limited availability of funds makes the local announcement of $75 million in tax credits even more impressive.

Combined, the Uptown Consortium and CDF applied for $140 million in credits and received more than half of their total request.  This is the second time the two organizations have applied for the New Markets Tax Credits in earnest and in both cases they secured about half of their total requests.

"We're very happy that we got something to help these great projects throughout the city," said Golliher.

Writer: Randy A. Simes
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