Last week wasn’t just a win for Travois and our partners.
It was a win for economic development throughout Indian Country.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund announced a combined $150 million in New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocations for three Native-focused entities.
Travois New Markets, Chickasaw Nation Community Development Endeavor and Native American Bank will each deploy $50 million in tax credits to help fund economic development projects across Indian Country.
This marks the first time that three community development entities (CDEs) exclusively dedicated to Native communities have been awarded in the same year.
“These NMTC allocations will result in a massive investment to create jobs, deliver health care and provide education in Native communities,” Phil Glynn, president of Travois, said. “Indigenous leaders across the country know where they want to go. This injection of capital will provide the boost to help them get there faster.”
What can New Markets Tax Credits do for your community?
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma received $4.4 million through the NMTC program to help fund the Choctaw Wellness Center.
New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) attract investment to economically distressed areas by providing financing with favorable terms and flexible features. The CDFI Fund awards the allocations to qualified CDEs, which are private companies that finance economic development projects in low-income communities.
NMTC allocations fill critical gaps in budgets by financing 20% of a project’s cost.
Travois New Markets has used previous NMTC allocations for a wide variety of purposes. For instance, the Red Lake Nation built a new grocery store with financing from the tax credits, while the Choctaw Nation built a health a wellness center for its citizens.
The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska built Educare Winnebago with the help of more than $3.5 million in NMTC financing. The school provides critical education to at-risk infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families.
Other Native communities have used the tax credits to help fund:
- Telecom upgrades
- Health care facilities
- School buildings
- Administration centers
- Businesses
“Our clients have shown that when capital is available for projects, they can use it to catalyze positive change,” Glynn said. “This new $50 million allocation allows us to move forward with more great projects just like these.”
We want to hear from you!
Is your community thinking about starting an economic development project?
We’d love to hear about it.
If you have a project that is moving forward now, it could potentially receive NMTCs from our recent allocation.
If you have a project moving forward in the next year or two, we’re going to submit another application for NMTCs late this year, and we would love to talk about featuring your plans in that application.
Either way, please reach out to us by completing our project description form.