Care Alliance Central Clinic

CDE: ESIC New Markets Partners Limited Partnership
Developer: Care Alliance Health Center
Owner: Care Alliance Health Center
Location: Cleveland

ESIC New Markets Partners Limited Partnership wins the 2015 Small Business QLICI of the Year Award for providing new markets tax credit (NMTC) financing to help build Care Alliance Central Clinic in Cleveland. Care Alliance Central Clinic, a new two-story, 30,000-square-foot community health center, will provide primary care, dental, behavioral health, podiatry, vision and social services, as well as an on-site pharmacy and community rooms to homeless and individuals living in public housing.

The new health center will be in the Central neighborhood of Cleveland. Elaine DiPietro, vice president of Enterprise Community Investment Inc., the parent company of ESIC, said the neighborhood has the highest concentration of public housing in northeast Ohio and a poverty rate exceeding 70 percent. There is very limited primary care in the Central neighborhood, leaving residents with few options other than hospital emergency rooms. Residents suffer from health disparities including an infant mortality rate and Type 2 diabetes rate that are twice the city average. The new health center will improve access to primary care for residents. It is a part of the redevelopment of the Cedar Extension public housing complex into a mixed-income community under the Choice Neighborhood Initiative. DiPietro said that at full capacity, the new facility will serve approximately 12,000 patients and provide 42,000 patient visits annually. The expansion will create approximately 56 new permanent jobs and 115 construction jobs.

The financing package combined various sources of funding, including $10 million in NMTC allocation from Enterprise, $5.4 million in bridge financing from Enterprise Community Loan Fund, $5 million in capital grant funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and an estimated $5.5 million in local community support. Chase served as the NMTC equity investor. The financing package includes two QLICIs, which will be structured as loans.

"Your heart can't help but go out to folks living in the Central neighborhood of Cleveland when you hear about the poverty and lack of access to good affordable health care. This facility will help address those needs and also help reduce the cost of health insurance indirectly by providing primary care and preventive care so as to avoid the high costs of emergency room visits," said Eric Rosen, a 2015 Community Development QLICIs of the Year Awards judge.

Erie HealthReach Waukegan Health Center

CDE: ESIC New Markets Partners Limited Partnership
Developer: Erie Family Health Center Inc.
Owner: Erie Family Health Center Inc.
Location: Waukegan, Ill.

ESIC New Markets Partners Limited Partnership receives honorable mention for the 2015 Small Business QLICI of the Year Award for its investment in Erie Health Reach Waukegan Health Center in Waukegan, Ill. With equity raised from new markets tax credits (NMTCs), Erie Family Health Center Inc. will renovate a former bank building to create a new 25,500-square-foot community health center.

Elaine DiPietro, vice president of Enterprise Community Investment Inc., the parent company of ESIC, said the health center will provide bilingual (English and Spanish) care to more than 45,000 patients, helping alleviate the high demand for services due to a growing low-income minority population. Services include comprehensive adult and pediatric primary care, women's health, dental, mental and vision services. The development is Erie's second expansion to the north and is a part of a comprehensive expansion plan to increase capacity by nearly 120,000 payable visits by 2020.

"NMTCs were critical to this project's development. Erie brings high-quality health care to low-income people in Waukegan," said Kandi Jackson, a 2015 Community Development QLICIs of the Year Awards judge.