NFF Dollars at Work

Featured Loan Closing

Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation: An expanded cultural center in the Bronx 

$2-million bridge loan (March 2020) 

Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) provides housing, economic and youth development, family counseling, and small business support. It also created a cultural home for the community through its Bronx Music Heritage Center (BMHC), with programming including live music performances, readings, film screenings, educational art programs, art installations, and music history trolley tours. Free events in the space served 5,000 people last year. With the help of a $2-million bridge loan from NFF, BMHC will soon have a brand-new space on the ground floor of one of WHEDco’s mixed use affordable housing developments, Bronx Commons. It will include a flexible theater space with seats for up to 350, classroom, dance studio, art exhibition area, recording studio, café and kitchen. In 2018, NFF provided WHEDco with a $2.5-million bridge loan for the renovation of another mixed-use space in the Bronx, Urban Horizons.  

2020 loans and other financing

Springfield Prep Charter SchoolOpened in 2015,currently operates in a temporary space serving 324 students in grades K-5. The school has identified a new, permanent space that can accommodate its full enrollment charter of 486 students in grades K-8. NFF provided a $2.4 million loan to finance acquisition and predevelopment of the new site, where the school plans a $10-million renovation.

Partners: BlueHub Capital

A Community of Friends (ACOF) works to end homelessness by providing quality permanent and affordable supportive housing for people with mental illness. With over 44 properties housing 2,533 adults and children in greater Los Angeles, all its locations have social services to help tenants remain stably housed. NFF provided a $2-million enterprise-level predevelopment and working capital loan in support of ACOF’s pipeline of nine supportive housing projects and their goal of expanding to 16 projects by 2021. This loan is the second from NFF’s Accelerating Permanent Supportive Housing Fund, which provides early-stage capital to help speed the development of supportive housing in the Los Angeles area. 

Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV) is a nonprofit independent media arts center in New York City. Founded in 1972, it fosters diverse viewpoints and creates positive social change by providing professional training, state-of-the-industry resources, and by creating and exhibiting thought-provoking, impactful documentary films. DCTV is building a new, 74-seat public cinema devoted exclusively to documentary film screenings. Located on the building’s ground floor, the cinema will serve as an expansion of the existing DCTV Presents programming, where the organization hosts screening events that engage audiences in documentary films about important social issues. NFF provided a $1-million bridge loan and a $1.1-million construction loan toward the $5.2-million project.

Partner: LISC

First Step Staffing is a nonprofit staffing agency. It converts existing for-profit staffing agencies into nonprofits with a mission-driven employment strategy – directly hiring those that have been most disenfranchised from the workforce – men and women experiencing homelessness, veterans, and people with disabilities. In 2018, it placed over 5,504 people with barriers into temporary jobs, 4,708 of whom had recently experienced homelessness. Founded in Atlanta 2006, it has expanded to Nashville, and in 2017, to Philadelphia, with the help of a $1.2 -million loan from NFF to purchase the accounts of a for-profit staffing company. First Step is taking now taking its approach now to Los Angeles. NFF made a $2.375-million term loan to finance First Step’s acquisition of a staffing company in LA that will now provide direct employment for thousands of people who face barriers to entering the workforce.

Partners: Reinvestment Fund, Dignity Health, REDF, LA County Workforce Development Aging & Community Services, and San Bernardino County

Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy (BVP) is a growing K-12 charter school network that serves 2,100 students from four neighboring communities in Rhode Island, creating shared experiences across both racial and socioeconomic lines. Founded in 2009, BVP currently operates three elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. NFF provided a $1.45-million loan to finance the renovation of MS2, BVP’s middle school located in Lincoln, RI, which will provide four new classrooms and two break-out rooms as well as replace the HVAC system and renovate existing bathrooms. In December 2016, NFF provided a $925,000 loan to acquire and renovate a 40,500 square foot facility for BVP’s high school in Cumberland, RI.

Partner: BlueHub Capital

Hill Country Community Clinic offers integrated medical, dental, chiropractic, and mental health services to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. With $11 million in NMTC sub-allocation and $10 million in loans, including investment from NFF’s AIM Healthy Fund and participation from Dignity Health, Hill Country Community Clinic is another step closer to the construction of a new 35,000 square foot health center that will serve over 9,000 patients annually once fully operational. The project, Center of Hope, will also include 16 units of supportive housing for young adults transitioning out of homelessness.

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