Lac du Flambeau Band uses News Markets Tax Credits to help build new dental facility

Dec. 10, 2012 - PRLog -- The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa will have better access to critical dental care at a new facility for its Peter Christensen Dental Campus (http://www.pcdcampus.com/), thanks in part to New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) financing provided by Travois New Markets (http://www.travois.com/), a nationally certified Community Development Entity, and Indion Ventures (http://www.indiongroup.com/), a Native American-owned investment management and tax credit syndication firm that is part of the Indion Group of companies.

Travois New Markets provided $11.5 million in NMTCs, and Indion Ventures invested more than $3 million in equity for the $12 million facility. The dental center will house state-of-the-art equipment, an increased capacity of 20 dental chairs and a full service in-house dental lab, and it will welcome patients with a culturally-focused design. The facility will also provide the space for a dental assistant/hygiene school that will instruct in both clinical and classroom settings and will help train the next generation of dental care providers for the reservation through partnerships with Nicolet College and Marquette University. The campus is expected to serve more than 700 households with 25,000 patient visits annually after it opens this spring.

“Finding these New Market Tax Credits was a real blessing for our program,” said Paco Fralick, health director of the Peter Christensen Dental Clinic. “Without them we would not have been able to complete our campus project. Travois helped us through a tough time, and our community is very grateful. They gently walked us through the legalities of the transaction and helped educate our tribal council and community on this type of financing, which was new to us and a bit intimidating. The first one was the hardest; however, I am sure our Lac du Flambeau will be looking to use Travois and New Market Tax Credits on other tribal projects in the future.”

Travois New Markets connected Indion Ventures to the project, which is expected to create more than 100 construction jobs and 25 new permanent jobs, in addition to 35 retrained jobs. Another Travois entity, Travois Environmental Services, provided a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment to help move the project to closing.

“The Lac du Flambeau Band realizes health care is a critical component of economic development,” said Phil Glynn, vice president of economic development for Travois. “Our advisory board and staff strongly agree and are proud to support this project.”

“This was an exciting and critical project for tribal infrastructure and development,” said Chad Burris, Indion founder. “We are extremely pleased to have been able to assist in bringing not only a vital service to the community but also in creating a platform of training for tribal members and non-members in the dental industry. We are extremely proud of what this project will accomplish and continue to give back to the community.”

About the New Markets Tax Credit program

The New Markets Tax Credit program is administered by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Enacted by Congress in 2000, the program encourages the investment of private equity capital into low income communities and, in exchange, allows investors to receive federal tax credits equaling 39 percent of the investment over a seven-year period. These investments are made to spur community and economic revitalization. The NMTC statue requires that investments be located in census tracts where the individual poverty rate is at least 20 percent or where median family income does not exceed 80 percent of the area median. NMTC investments of $15.5 billion have generated a total of $50 billion in capital that has been invested in some of the nation’s most underserved communities. For more information, visit www.cdfifund.gov.

About Indion Group

Indion was initially formed in 2005 to give opportunities to filmmakers to use state tax incentives in order to provide financing for new motion picture projects located in low income areas as an economic development driver for those communities. Realizing how well tax-credit financing worked for individual film projects, Indion expanded the reach and availability of its services to small businesses and renewable energy projects. Indion’s experience in tax credit and alternative finance transactions assists projects by providing a boost in capital resources as well as enhancing economic opportunity for the communities in which the projects operate. Indion provides an array of business, legal, tax, compliance and strategic financial services to allow companies to move forward successfully when they are in need of funding for a singular project, an expansion, or to establish an entirely new business. For more information please visit www.indiongroup.com.

About Travois

Travois New Markets, a nationally certified Community Development Entity (CDE), is dedicated exclusively to meeting the economic development needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians in low income communities. Travois New Markets has invested a total of $110 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation that it was awarded from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and it will soon finish placing its most recent $70 million allocation. The Travois family of companies raises capital for housing and economic development in Indian Country and provides educational, environmental, architectural and asset management services. For more information, visit www.travois.com.