Invest Detroit, a nonprofit lender and investor that supports business and real estate projects to promote economic growth in Detroit and the region, has received a $50 million New Markets Tax Credit allocation from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
This is the fifth time Invest Detroit has received an allocation since 2009 and $50 million is the largest award Invest Detroit has received to date.
“This substantial allocation of New Markets Tax Credits will significantly improve our ability to invest in Detroit neighborhoods and Detroit developers of color, as we continue to create high-quality new jobs throughout Southeast Michigan,” says Dave Blaszkiewicz, president and CEO of Invest Detroit. “This award recognizes and reaffirms the innovative ways we have utilized the NMTC program over the last thirteen years to benefit Detroit and the region.”
The NMTC award will allow Invest Detroit to continue to finance revitalization projects throughout the city.
Recent investments include:
MyLocker — An online vendor of custom apparel and home goods, MyLocker’s successful development of proprietary technology allows for automation and rapid turnaround of custom products. Using a NMTC investment from Invest Detroit, MyLocker tripled the size of its headquarters in the Corktown neighborhood with a new three-story logistics and production facility. This in turn secured 260 existing jobs in Detroit and is projected to create 450 more new jobs in three years.
Live6 NMTC Investment Fund — To better serve the smaller-scale businesses found in Detroit neighborhoods, Invest Detroit created a pooled NMTC loan fund that was then disbursed to three different businesses in a two-block geography on West McNichols Ave in Detroit. This approach allowed many of the overhead costs of structuring NMTC loans to be borne just once by the parent fund while providing low-cost financing to several small businesses. Using this NMTC investment fund to leverage the Strategic Neighborhood Fund, a larger neighborhood reinvestment initiative, three vacant buildings are being reactivated, all led by developers of color. Those buildings include:
- Sawyer Art Apartments will add 38 new residential units and ground floor retail. The project will be the first major ground-up new construction to happen along the recently completed $7 million McNichols streetscape upgrade.
- The Enclave will reactivate 8,000 square feet into the first Black-owned tap room in Detroit that will also serve as a gathering spot for the neighborhood.
- Detroit Pizza Bar opened in spring 2022 and deploys a holistic workforce and hospitality training program as part of its commitment to the dozens of neighborhood residents it employs.
“We are thrilled and grateful for this news,” says Marcia Ventura, senior vice president of lending at Invest Detroit. “Our goal of a thriving Detroit that works for all Detroiters is greatly enhanced with this kind of funding boost. We look forward to all of the new projects this will make possible.”
To date, Invest Detroit has received $163 million in allocation. Beginning in 2009, these funds have supported 16 different projects across the city and has created nearly 3,500 jobs and contributed to the development of catalytic infrastructure such as the QLine, support for Detroit entrepreneurs, reactivation of numerous vacant historical buildings, and support for manufacturing facilities that create accessible jobs for Detroiters.
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