PROVIDENCE – The Providence Public Library’s $25 million renovation, part of its Think Again Strategic Plan, has received $4.2 million in New Markets Tax Credit equity, through the Community Development Financial Institutions fund, a division of the Department of Treasury, the nonprofit library announced Wednesday.
The equity comes from $15.5 million in NMTC allocations, provided through investments from Consortium America LLC and Building America CDE Inc.
According to the CDFI fund, the NMTC program is designed to attract 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 equity investments in specialized financial intermediaries called community-development entities.
The credit totals 39 percent of the original investment amount and is claimed over a period of seven years.
The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank, through its Rhode Island C-PACE Program, has invested $1.6 million toward the renovation. The funding for the C-PACE investment comes from Greenworks Lending, a national provider of commercial PACE financing.
The C-PACE program allows the library to extend the loan throughout the projected usefulness of the equipment installed. The RIIB investment will be used for energy-efficiency renovations.
The project had previously received an $8.8 million grant from the R.I. Office of Library and Information Services, a leadership gift of $1 million from Rosalyn Sinclair as part of a capital campaign, as well as a $200,000 grant from the R.I. State Council on the Arts.
The renovation will include safety-system upgrades and infrastructure improvements at the library’s downtown buildings.
The organization said the renovation will “transform the library’s 1950s wing, auditorium and special collection areas to provide 21st-century library services for Providence and Rhode Island residents.”
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor. Email him at Bergenheim@PBN.com.
