HIT Creates a Subsidiary to Promote Investment in Low-Income Communities “Building America CDE” Will Seek New Markets Tax Credits to Spur Development

March 30, 2010

The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT) has formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Building America CDE, Inc. (Building America,) to facilitate participation in the federal government’s New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program designed to stimulate economic growth in low-income communities around the country.

“Access to New Markets Tax Credits will allow for even greater investment in low-income communities,” said Eric Price, Chief Executive Officer of Building America and HIT’s Managing Director for Housing and Community Development Investments. “Building America should open up new investment opportunities for the HIT that meet the credit quality and yield requirements of our portfolio. In addition to the creation of new jobs, it will also allow us to offer HIT’s financing expertise to local groups that are working to bring development to low-income communities often overlooked by investors.”

Building America’s Advisory Board is made up of representatives from a wide range of organizations committed to helping low-income communities and individuals through advocacy programs and housing and development activities. The board consists of the following members:

Nan Roman - Chair, President and CEO, National Alliance to End Homelessness

Naomi Bayer - Senior Vice President, National Initiatives and Innovation, Enterprise Community Partners

Marcie Cohen - Senior Vice President and Chief Housing Policy Adviser for the HIT

Sheila Crowley - President, National Low Income Housing Coalition

Eric W. Price - Chief Executive Officer, Building America, CDE Inc., and Managing Director, Housing and Community Development Investments for the HIT

Saul N. Ramirez - Executive Director, National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials

Kenneth D. Wade - Chief Executive Officer, NeighborWorks America

Building America has applied to the U.S. Treasury Department for certification as a Community Development Entity (CDE), which will make it eligible to seek New Markets Tax Credits in the next allocation round. The application is anticipated to be released in the next month or so. An allocation of these tax credits would enable Building America to contribute as much as 25% of the total capital cost of a qualifying project in the form of tax-credit funded equity.