Arkansas Capital is proud to announce that its CDE, Heartland Renaissance Fund, LLC, has been awarded a $65 million allocation in New Markets Tax Credits to foster investment in businesses and economic activities in low income and underserved communities throughout Arkansas. This allocation is the second-largest amount Heartland has ever been awarded. To learn more about this momentous occasion, we enlisted Christa Clark, Vice President of Heartland Renaissance Fund, to answer a few questions about the allocation, and give some insight on what how this money will change Arkansas communities for the better. Continue reading
Category Archives: New Markets Tax Credit News
Meet Becka Webb, VP
Get to know Becka Webb, HRF Vice President, as she gives us a peak into her life at work and at home. We are thrilled to have Becka on the team. She gives her all every day of the week and contributes greatly to the success of Arkansas Capital and its clients.
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E-Waste Mining Center Digs Up NMTCs
Download pdf: E-Waste Mining Center Digs Up NMTCs
A new electronic waste (e-waste) recycling center under construction in Osceola, Ark., has project partners calling it “the place where the Silicon Valley meets the Mississippi Delta.” Developed by California-based BlueOak Resources Inc. using federal new markets tax credit (NMTC) financing, the BlueOak Arkansas facility will use a high-temperature furnace to extract precious metals found in electronics, such as circuit boards and cell phones.
Priv Bradoo, BlueOak’s co-founder and CEO, said that the concentration of precious metals in electronic scrap, such as printed circuit boards, is more than 100 times greater than precious metals in the same amount of virgin ore. With more than 50 million tons of e-waste being generated around the world every year, she said people have a responsibility to recognize these waste streams as a valuable resource. Bradoo said the Osceola facility will be the first of its kind in the United States dedicated to recovering high-value metals from electronic scrap. Once BlueOak begins operations at the end of 2015, it will be able to process at least 15 million pounds of e-waste annually with technology designed to be both efficient and environmentally friendly.
“If the BlueOak technology works, it will not only lessen environmental degradation resulting from mining, it will also dramatically lower the amount of harmful pollutants emitted from current recycling processes, as well as drastically reduce the toxic exposure currently confronted by individuals involved in e-waste recycling around the globe–many of whom are already suffering from living in deep poverty,” said Deborah La Franchi, president of National New Markets Funds, which was one of BlueOak’s NMTC allocatees. Continue reading
CDFI Fund Launches New Mapping System, Helps CDEs Transition
The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund today launched the latest version of its CDFI Information Mapping System (CIMS3). The web-based tool allows organizations interested in getting certified as a CDFI or community development entity (CDE), or those interested in applying to one of the CDFI Fund’s award programs, to plot their eligible service areas and investments. Continue reading