CDFA awards $4 million in tax credits to fund initiatives across state

Economic development, affordable housing among projects receiving boost

The NH Community Development Finance Authority has awarded $4 million in tax credits to nonprofits throughout New Hampshire that are expected to have a significant, including projects that focus on economic development, downtown revitalization and developing affordable housing. 

Katy Easterly Martey, executive director of CDFA, said the agency’s tax credit program “is uniquely structured to enable effective, reliable deployment of public and private resources to our nonprofit partners. The result is the creation of long-lasting public-private partnerships that achieve critical local initiatives that enable our communities to be more resilient, vibrant places people want to work, live and visit.”

The initiatives awarded CDFA tax credits projects:

 • Belknap Mill Society, $390,000: The society will use tax credit funds to preserve and renovate the Belknap Mill in Laconia. 

 • Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, $450,000: Tax credits will be used to in the purchase of a historic building in downtown Portsmouth to serve as an interpretive center and office space for the organization.

 • Boys & Girls Club of Manchester, $250,000: The club will use tax credits to support the renovation of Camp Foster, a 22-acre outdoor facility that currently serves as a summer camp for club members. 

 • Capitol Center for the Arts, $312,500: Tax credits will be used to renovate the long-vacant Concord Theatre into a new venue.

 • Lakes Region Community Developers, $300,000: The credits will support efforts to create affordable housing in Wolfeboro. 

 • Lebanon Opera House, $155,000: Tax credits will be used to purchase a sound system and a new digital projector. 

 • MAPS Counseling Services, $112,500: Tax credits will help complete a relocation and remodel project to expand affordable outpatient mental health services in Cheshire County.

 • Portsmouth Housing Authority, $375,000: The tax credit funds will develop 64 housing units in downtown. 

 • Regional Economic Development Center of Southern New Hampshire, $250,000: Tax credits will be used to support the center’s New American Loan Fund, which provides access to technical assistance and loans to first-generation American business owners throughout the state. 

 • Rochester Opera House, $140,000: Tax credits will be used to assist in purchasing space downtown to support the growth of programming. 

 • Children's Museum of New Hampshire, $100,000: Tax credit funds will be used to expand programming that engages families with hands-on discovery and learning by adding new outdoor space and enhancing an interior classroom. 

 • The Mount Washington Valley Trails Association, $300,000: Tax credits will be sued to construct a multi-use, paved recreation and alternative transportation path for residents and visitors of North Conway. 

 • Twin Pines Housing Trust, $250,000: Tax credits will be used to create a community building to provide space for programming and community gathering, including an accessible laundry facility. 

 • Winchester Learning Center, $125,000: The tax credits will be sued to create additional space to increase access to affordable, quality childcare. 

CDFA also awarded tax credit funds for its L5 Capacity Building Program, which is focused on providing a one-time infusion of capital to a nonprofit organization. Recipients included:

• CATCH Neighborhood Housing, $31,250, to support the NH Affordable Housing Organization Partnership, which includes AHEAD, CATCH, Lakes Region Community Developers and Neighborworks Southern NH.

 • Child and Family Services, $75,000, to help the organization improve client services and increase operational efficiencies through an investment in a new data management system.

 • Families in Transition, $35,000, top to enhance the organization’s internal capacity to develop housing units for the homeless. 

 • Franklin Business and Industrial Corp., $18,750, to support creation and development of a single-purpose organization dedicated to opening an arts and culture hub in downtown Franklin.

 • G.A.L.A. Community Center, $37,500, to support the development of a green makerspace and incubator in Wolfeboro through business planning and investments in the organization’s capacity.

 • Haverhill Heritage Inc. $31,375, to support development and programming for the historic Wentworth Brown building in downtown Haverhill through comprehensive strategic planning.

 • Twin Pines Housing Trust, $29,094, to support a strategic planning process to enhance the trust’s opportunities for growth.

In addition to this year’s selected projects, CDFA’s tax credit program funds provide capital for nonprofit regional development corporations throughout the state to collaborate on fostering and encouraging economic development and job growth.