The massive Crosstown Concourse redevelopment is so aspirational that the half-dozen "entities" that subsidized the project's financing have just won a national award. The 2015 honor was bestowed by Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits, an authoritative source on the tax credit industry, including the New Market Tax Credit program.

That 15-year-old federal program is designed to help revitalize low-income neighborhoods like the one surrounding Crosstown Concourse by making more capital available for projects that create jobs.

Organizations labeled ''community development entitites'' -- they can be nonprofit or for-profit -- compete to receive New Market Tax Credit authority from the federal government. The community development entities, in turn, allocate the tax credits to qualified projects that compete for the subsidies.

Typically, the tax credits fill a financing gap for projects in low-income areas. Without them, the developers would not break even.

The community development entitites investing in Crosstown Concourse are: Low Income Investment Fund; Mid-City Community CDE; DV Community Investment LLC; SunTrust Community Development Enterprises LLC; MidWest Renewable Capital; and National Trust Community Investment Corp.

They won in the real estate category of Novogradac's 2015 Community Development Qualified Low-Income Community Investment of the Year Awards.

The group of community development entities provided $56 million of New Market Tax Credits to support the $200 million Crosstown Concourse redevelopment. (Another $45 million of historic tax credits also supported the project, which is renovating the 88-year-old Sears Crosstown building to its historic form.)

To read the full article, please click here.