CHICAGO – McCaffery Interests (MI), the controlling entity of Southside Community Optimal Redevelopment Enterprise (SCORE) is pleased to announce it has been awarded $35 million in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. SCORE is a Community Development Entity that provides capital to qualifying businesses and projects in highly distressed low-income areas marked by industrial flight in Illinois and Indiana. First funded in 2012, SCORE has received $320 million in awards to date.
SCORE’s controlling entity, McCaffery Interests (MI), was founded in 1990, with a mission of transforming urban neighborhoods in ways that inspire community, create opportunities and foster the ideals of smart growth.
“This allocation of NMTCs provides a critically important resource to our most distressed urban neighborhoods, supporting manufacturing jobs and critical services such as healthcare, education, and fresh food,” said Daniel McCaffery, Chair of SCORE’s Governing Board.
SCORE was established with a mission to invest its NMTCs in operating businesses, manufacturing, community facilities (education and healthcare), and fresh food retailers that will provide living wage jobs and advancement opportunities in the highly distressed low-income communities that have experienced a loss of skilled employment opportunities, growing levels of lower educational achievement, and a lack of adequate access to goods and services. SCORE is an equal opportunity provider.
To date, SCORE has financed 43 businesses throughout Illinois and Indiana that have supported more than 5,000 jobs, provided increased access to healthcare to more than 150,000 individuals, and provided educational services to more than 5,000 individuals.
The NMTC Program attracts private capital into low-income communities by permitting individual and corporate investors to receive a tax credit against their federal income tax in exchange for making investments on qualified projects within economically distressed communities. The credit totals 39 percent of the original investment amount and is claimed over a period of seven years.