Treasury awards $141 million in tax credits to local development funds

The U.S. Department of Treasury has awarded millions of dollars in New Markets Tax Credits to the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), community development financing groups which help fund projects in Philadelphia and the region. The local organizations were a few of 87 entities around the country to receive a total of $3.5 billion in tax credit allocations, the Department announced this week.

PIDC was allocated federal tax credits worth $38 million, TRF received $43 million, and LISC received $60 million.

The Reinvestment Fund, a Community Development Financial Institution with offices in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Jersey City, has received more than $400 million in New Markets Tax Credits since the federal program started in 2000. PIDC has now received around $150 million worth of the credits, and LISC, which is based in New York, has received around $840 million.

New Markets Tax Credits allow Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to invest in projects in low-income communities. The institutions, such as PIDC or TRF, give out the tax credits to private investors in exchange for investing in certain projects.

One prominent example of a project funded partially by New Markets Tax Credits is Paseo Verde, the mixed-use, mixed-income housing project next to the Temple University Train Station. That project was bolstered by a $10 million New Markets Tax Credit investment administered by LISC.

Oxford Mills, a housing development adapted from a former factory in South Kensington with units marketed to Philadelphia school teachers, received a $15 million tax credit investment administered by PIDC.