U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation provided $5.5 million in new markets tax credit (NMTC) financing to support two Mary's Center community health clinics in Washington, D.C. The equity helped fund the acquisition and expansion of an existing health complex's three buildings, as well as the construction of a second facility in another part of the city that is also being used as a charter school. The new facilities created approximately 50 permanent healthcare positions and more than 500 construction-related jobs in a highly distressed area. City First New Markets Fund II LLC allocated $20 million in NMTCs to the project. Mary's Center provides health care to uninsured and underinsured persons, 90 percent of whom are below the federal poverty level.

Citi Community Capital (CCC) and LISC's New Markets Support Company (NMSC) launched a $25 million NMTC investment fund designed to support economic development projects and job creation in low-income communities. The companies say that the newly created New Markets Community Impact Fund will invest in eight to 10 projects across the country in the next year. This marks NMSC's first foray into national syndication services; the company will also perform deal sourcing, underwriting and asset management for the new fund. NMSC, which formerly concentrated on managing LISC's $693 million NMTC allocation, has expanded its capacity and said it is now working beyond LISC's footprint to connect investors with shovel-ready projects.

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Finance Fund provided NMTCs and private financing for an aviation research and development facility on the University of Dayton campus in Dayton, Ohio. The General Electric EPISCenter is being constructed on a brownfield site and will create a new purpose for a former NCR Corporation facility, Finance Fund said. CityWide Development Corporation, Urban Research Park CDE LLC and PNC Community Development Corporation also participated in the transaction.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released its schedule of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) examinations to be conducted in the first quarter of 2012. OCC encouraged public comment on the national banks and federal savings associations scheduled to be examined under the CRA, and requested that comments be submitted directly to the institutions. The agency will consider all comments received prior to the close of the CRA exam. View the CRA examination schedule at www.occ.gov.

Seawall Development Corporation was recognized by the White House as a "Champion of Change" for its approach to redeveloping historic buildings into office space for not-for-profits and housing for teachers. Enterprise Community Investment allocated $9.4 million in NMTCs for Miller's Court, a mixed-use property that Seawall developed specifically for teachers and teaching support organizations in Baltimore, Md. Enterprise recently approved a loan for Seawall to replicate the Miller's Court model in Philadelphia, Pa.

The CDFI Fund reported in November that it had certified 5,327 community development entities (CDEs) as of October 31. The list reflects an additional 29 organizations that had received certification since September, and showed that nearly 700 CDEs were added during the previous 12 months. View the certified CDEs list at www.newmarketscredits.com.

President Obama announced his intent to nominate Mark J. Mazur as the Department of the Treasury's assistant secretary for tax policy. Mazur has served as the Treasury's deputy assistant for tax analysis since 2009. Before joining Treasury, he was the director of research, analysis and statistics of income for the Internal Revenue Service, and during the Clinton Administration he worked for the Department of Energy. Mazur received his master's degree and doctorate from Stanford University.

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