Two high profile development projects in New Mexico that will benefit American Indian communities recently received a substantial economic boost as Travois New Markets, a Community Development Entity (CDE) dedicated to investments benefiting American Indian communities, and U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation (USBCDC) teamed up to provide more than $12.7 million in combined New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) financing. The NMTC funding will be used to jump start the building of two electrical substations on the Navajo Nation Reservation in Shiprock and to complete the renovation of the ANDALUZ (formerly known as La Posada Hotel) in Albuquerque that, when operational, will employ at least 20 percent of its staff with American Indians.
USBCDC and Travois New Markets worked to leverage an existing asset by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), resulting in a $6.4 million investment to help finance the construction of two electrical substations on the Navajo Nation Reservation. The new substations will nearly double electrical capacity to the Shiprock region without raising residents’ electric rates and bring service to 400 families that currently do not have power. It will also catalyze $41 million of economic development that the Navajo Nation has yet to move forward on due to lack of adequate electrical service from the existing 40-year old substation and transformers.
Travois New Markets and USBCDC also teamed up to provide $6.3 million in NMTC financing for the $38 million renovation of ANDALUZ, a historic hotel at 125 2nd Street Northwest in Albuquerque. Efforts are well underway to turn the 1939 structure, which was originally built by Conrad Hilton, into a 107-room, LEED-certified boutique hotel that will serve as a premier venue for meeting planners and attendees. A cultural center on the mezzanine level will showcase artifacts and displays that educate, preserve and promote the great artistic, historical, cultural and ethnic treasures of the southwest and New Mexico. It is scheduled to open in mid-summer of 2009.
To read the entire news release, click here.
For more information on the projects, click here.