NMTC Small Business Green Loan Program Planned for Twin Cities

By Caitlin Jones
October 22, 2009 2 min read

Tax Credit Advisor, September 2009: Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF), a nonprofit organization, has announced it is partnering with Capital Markets Partnership (CMP) to incorporate the latter’s Green Building Underwriting Standards into a planned new pilot program to provide loans to small businesses for green improvements in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.

The pilot loan program, still under development, and to be funded by new markets tax credits, is being launched by CRF in partnership with the City of Minneapolis Office of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) and the Saint Paul Port Authority (SPPA). CPED and SPPA will be the primary lending partners for the program, connecting qualified borrowers with CRF. Minneapolis-based CRF is identifying partners and investors for the program and plans to launch the pilot in St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2010.

The pilot program loans will be an addition to CRF’s existing NMTC loan products. CRF envisions that the new program might cover a variety of green improvements, including building-shell renovations and new heating and cooling equipment. “We want to make it as easy as possible for small businesses to save money and reduce environmental impact,” said Frank Altman, president and CEO of CRF. “Ideally, everything from weather-stripping to new lighting to full-scale green renovations would qualify for this loan.”

CMP, based in Washington, DC, is a nonprofit coalition of investors, investment banks, insurers, city, state and federal government, countries, and nongovernmental organizations that has created a set of underwriting standards that incorporate green building attributes into standard real estate underwriting practices.

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