Little Big Horn College (LBHC), the higher education institution of the Crow (Apsáalooke) Tribe of Indians, will soon complete construction on its new 35,000-square-foot Health and Wellness Center, thanks in part to New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) financing provided by Travois New Markets, a nationally certified Community Development Entity, and Indion Ventures, a Native American-owned investment management and tax credit syndication firm that is part of the Indion Group of companies.
After assembling funds from various sources for the Health and Wellness Center, LBHC still faced a financing gap and turned to New Markets Tax Credits for help. Travois New Markets provided $8.8 million in NMTCs, and Indion Ventures invested more than $2.3 million in equity for the $10 million facility, which will provide a learning environment for health and wellness education programs and exercise facilities.
“The Health and Wellness Center will meet the needs of our growing campus and encourage the recruitment of students in health-related fields, a career area that is sorely lacking in our community,” said Dr. David Yarlott, president of LBHC. “Diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and cancer from smoking are concerns throughout the nation, but are more pronounced in Native American communities. A healthier student tends to be a better student academically, and this facility also will help alleviate or curtail the number of community members becoming afflicted with health-related diseases.”
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Max Baucus, Montana’s senior U.S. Senator spearheaded changes to the New Markets Tax Credit program in 2007 to require a portion of the tax credits to be invested in rural states. Baucus said New Markets Tax Credits also encourage businesses to relocate in new markets such as reservations, which will further enhance targeted economic development.
“This great news is proof that given the right tools, we can make important strides forward in bringing good-paying jobs to Montana while investing in the future of economic development for our tribes. My sincere thanks goes out to everyone from the Little Big Horn College, the Crow Nation and all of the partners who have worked to make sure the New Markets Tax Credits are put to good use,” said Baucus. “This new center has already provided jobs in the construction phase and will continue to boost our ability to attract even more opportunities for the future.”
The facility consists of an NCAA gymnasium, collegiate locker rooms, a strength training room, a cardio room, an aerobics/gathering room, public lockers and restrooms, and other facility support spaces. Community members are expected to utilize the center for exercise, celebrations, pow wows and graduations.
The project created 98 construction jobs and will employ six full-time-equivalent staff members when it is opens in the fall. LBHC has a goal of achieving Platinum Certification for the facility though the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system. Green features include skylights, sun shading devices and overhangs and on-site rainwater detention.
“When LHBC decided to pursue LEED Certification, we knew that the cost of the building would increase,” Yarlott said. “In seeking other funding sources, we heard of the New Markets Tax Credits program and sought to understand it more. The information was great news for us; it was a means to complete the building. It has been a wonderful opportunity for us.”
Travois New Markets helped with the education process and connected Indion Ventures to the project.
“Little Big Horn College is the economic engine of the Crow Reservation,” said Phil Glynn, vice president of economic development for Travois. “In addition to providing dozens of jobs, LBHC trains future Crow leaders, business men and women, teachers and others in growth industries that the Crow Tribe has identified. Little Big Horn College is creating a sustainable future for the Crow Tribe.”
“Indion’s mission is to create economic development opportunities in low-income areas with a particular focus on Indian Country,” said Chad Burris, Indion founder. “We are proud to have successfully participated in placing new businesses in these areas in a wide variety of industries ranging from large-scale green energy projects to individual motion picture productions. The LBHC investment for the Health and Wellness Center is another banner project for meeting the goals of our organization ─ providing opportunities for growth of tribal communities, job creation and establishing business ventures that support sovereignty.”
The New Markets Tax Credit program is administered by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Enacted by Congress in 2000, the program encourages the investment of private equity capital into low income communities and, in exchange, allows investors to receive federal tax credits equaling 39 percent of the investment over a seven-year period. These investments are made to spur community and economic revitalization. The NMTC statue requires that investments be located in census tracts where the individual poverty rate is at least 20 percent or where median family income does not exceed 80 percent of the area median. NMTC investments of $15.5 billion have generated a total of $50 billion in capital that has been invested in some of the nation’s most underserved communities. For more information, visit www.cdfifund.gov.
About LBHC
Little Big Horn College, a 1994 Land Grant Institution, is the Crow higher education and cultural center that grants Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees and certificates in areas that reflect the developing economic opportunities and social needs of the Crow Indian Reservation and surrounding communities, offering instruction by traditional and distance education methods. The college is dedicated to the professional, vocational and personal development of individual students for their advancement in higher education or the workplace and inspiring Crow and American Indian Scholarship. The college is committed to the preservation, perpetuation and protection of Crow culture and language, and respects the distinct bilingual and bicultural aspects of the Crow Indian community. Little Big Horn College is committed to the advancement of the Crow Indian family and community building. For more information, visit www.lbhc.edu.
About Indion Group
Indion was initially formed in 2005 to give opportunities to filmmakers to use state tax incentives in order to provide financing for new motion picture projects located in low-income areas as an economic development driver for those communities. Realizing how well tax-credit financing worked for individual film projects, Indion expanded the reach and availability of its services to small businesses and renewable energy projects. Indion’s experience in tax credit and alternative finance transactions assists projects by providing a boost in capital resources as well as enhancing economic opportunity for the communities in which the projects operate. Indion provides an array of business, legal, tax, compliance and strategic financial services to allow companies to move forward successfully when they are in need of funding for a singular project, an expansion, or to establish an entirely new business. For more information please visit www.indiongroup.com.
About Travois
Travois New Markets, a nationally certified Community Development Entity (CDE), is dedicated exclusively to meeting the needs of American Indians in low-income communities. Travois New Markets received a $30 million NMTC allocation in 2007 and an $80 million allocation in 2009 from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The Travois family of companies offers housing and economic development assistance, compliance support, design services and comprehensive training to the nation’s American Indian population with clients across the United States from Washington to Maine.
Rendering courtesy of BNIM and SGA.