The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund is soliciting comments on its CDFI/CDE Project Profile web form, a collection of stories from projects financed by the CDFI Fund’s programs. Comments are invited regarding the necessity of collecting the information; the accuracy of the agency’s estimate of the burden of information collection; ways to enhance the collected information’s clarity and quality; and ways to minimize the burden of information collection. Written comments should be submitted to the CDFI Fund on or before September 27. For clarification and to reflect new programs it administers, the CDFI Fund has also proposed additional narrative questions, clarifying language and program check boxes. Find the current form and proposed changes on the CDFI Fund’s web site at www.cdifund.gov.

The Dermot Company Inc. closed construction financing on a mixed-use development in Manhattan’s Lower East Side that includes new headquarters for the Lower Eastside Girls Club and 78 mixed-income rental units. Developed in partnership with Grosvenor Investment Management US Inc., the City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the NYC Housing Development Corporation (HDC), the project was financed with a combination of tax-exempt housing bonds and new markets tax credits (NMTCs). HPD sold the land to the Lower Eastside Girls Club and HDC provided bond financing and subsidy loans. Bank of America and Carver Community Development Corporation provided an NMTC allocation, which Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase will invest in to raise NMTC equity financing. Construction is expected to be completed by June 2012. A portion of funding comes from the New Housing Marketplace Plan (NHMP), an $8.4 million initiative to finance 165,000 affordable units for half a million New Yorkers by 2014. The plan has funded the creation or preservation of nearly 108,600 units of affordable housing across the five boroughs to date.

In another development funded in part by New York City’s NHMP, the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. worked with the NYC Housing Development Corporation (HDC), the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and BRP Development to develop a mixed-use, mixed-income $45 million property called The Bradford, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The transaction was structured to allow HDC funds to be used in conjunction with NMTCs for the first time. HDC issued $20.7 million in tax-exempt bonds and provided $6.8 million in subsidy. HPD provided nearly $4.4 million in City Capital Funds, $1.9 million in HOME funds and $1 million in Housing Trust Fund program funds. Goldman Sachs served as equity backer for the bond issuance and provided $6.5 million in NMTC equity. Construction is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2012.

Hudson River HealthCare (HRHC) used more than $2.8 million in NMTC financing from the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC) to expand primary care and dental services to low-income patients by acquiring property in downtown Monticello, N.Y. The health center draws more than 10,000 patient visits per year and provides essential dental services, preventive care for families, chronic care management for diabetes and hypertension, HIV services, prenatal services and podiatry. PCDC provided the 25-year fixed-interest loan, which is structured to allow as much as 26 percent to be forgiven, through its $40 million New Markets Loan Program. HSBC provided NMTC equity. HRHC also partnered with Sullivan County Industrial Development Agency to maximize the NMTC benefits.

The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) announced three new members serving on its board of directors: Judy Burton, president and CEO of Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools; Joseph Reilly, president and CEO of Community Development Trust; and Barry Zigas, founder of Zigas and Associates LLC. Outgoing board members include Steven Fayne, managing director of Citi Community Capital; Shekar Narasimhan, managing partner of Beekman Advisors Inc.; and Jim Park, president and CEO of New Vista Asset Management Inc.

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