Portland New Markets Fund I, LLC (PNMF) has provided financing for the following projects:

Vanport Square Phase I

Innovative Condominium Structure Provides Wealth-building Opportunities on MLK

"My personal goal is to make Portland's Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard the best Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the United States," said Mayor Tom Potter, who patrolled the street as a police officer in the 1960s. "(Vanport Square) is a big step in achieving that." - Portland Mayor Tom Potter, Vanport Square Groundbreaking Ceremony, October 10, 2006, reported in The Oregonian

The Albina Neighborhood of Northeast Portland, has long been one of the city's most economically distressed communities. In particular, the corner of Killingsworth Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which includes the historic Marco Industrial Building, has been identified by the Albina Community Plan as a key node for area economic revitalization. Substantial efforts to redevelop this vacant property over a decade or more have been unsuccessful; however an $8.9 million allocation of New Markets Tax Credits investment helped complete financing for an $8.7 million, 40,000 SF development called Vanport Square that houses seventeen business condominiums. At Vanport Square, not only do businesses contribute to the uplifting of the area, but they share in the appreciation of the property by purchasing their own workspaces.

Community Impacts Report - Vanport Square Phase 1

Community Transitional School

The School for Homeless Children Gets a Home

"This may be the best single project in the country for New Markets Tax Credits" - Zack Boyers, US Bancorp's Senior Vice President, Director of Historic Investments, at the Community Transitional School groundbreaking, July 18, 2007

After PNMF had deployed $98.9 million of its $100 million NMTC allocation, a member of PNMF's community advisory board approached with an idea: the Community Transitional School (CTS) was in desperate need of funding to build a permanent facility - can we help? Formed in 1990 as a partnership between the YWCA and Portland Public Schools (it became a 501 (c)(3) organization in 1998), CTS serves about 200 children per year whose families are homeless or in poverty-related crisis. The school had been forced to move six times in 16 years. The decision to build its own space was made after the most recent eviction and the realization that what these students need most is stability.

"Three quarters of the children who go to school here are living in motels, transitional units, or moving between family friends' homes. This fall, several will probably be living in their cars," says Cheryl Bickle, principal and founder of the school.

Deep poverty has a pervasive effect: some CTS students move so often, they have to call the school each morning to tell the bus drivers where to pick them up. In addition to an education, CTS provides basic daily needs such as clean clothing, two hot meals, and dental and health care.

PNMF closed the NMTC transaction in July 2007 to finalize funding for CTS' permanent home using the remaining $1.1 million in PNMF allocation, as well as tax credits and tax credit investment from US Bancorp CDC, with valuable assistance from Nixon Peabody LLP and Novogradac & Company.

Community Transitional School moved into its new facility in the fall of 2008.

Community Impacts Report - Community Transitional School

Union Gospel Mission

A New Drug Rehabilitation Facility in Old Town

"Constructing a modern building in one of Portland's most historic and dense districts is no small feat". - Maureen McGrain, Portland Business Journal

The Union Gospel Mission (UGM) is located in Portland's Old Town, a CDFI Fund-designated Targeted Distressed Community with poverty rates of 41.3% and unemployment rates of 50.5% according to 2000 US Census data. UGM provides numerous social services, including LifeChange, a long-term addiction recovery program in which residents live and work at the Mission for approximately four years while learning to overcome addiction; getting job and life-training, and building new lives. A $7 million New Markets Tax Credits investment from PNMF was structured and closed

to bring the final piece of financing for the construction of the new 28,000 SF, four-story facility which allows this program to grow from 30 to 75 LifeChange participants. The addition provides residential space, classrooms, computer labs, a library and the Mission's administrative offices to offer a more complete recovery package for addicts.

Community Impacts Report - Union Gospel Mission

Portland Small Business Loan Fund

Small Loans for Small Businesses

Ethan Dunham, chairman of the city's Small Business Advisory Council, says the small-business loans are the right way to boost the economy in struggling parts of the city. "To take that program and go after small business is terrific," he said. "Everyone knows job creation is in small business." - as reported in The Oregonian

The lack of access to affordable capital is an acute problem for small businesses in Portland's low-income communities. Small and affordable loans for especially critical to home-based, entrepreneurial ventures that allow many low-income households to make ends meet. These small and micro-businesses traditionally do not qualify for, and may not need, the larger minimum amounts that banks ordinarily provide. PNMF structured and closed the Portland Small Business Loan Fund in July, 2006 utilizing $5.5 million in New Markets Tax Credits.

The Loan Fund offers below-market loans to small businesses in Portland, Oregon.

The Oregon Clinic Gateway Medical Office Building

A New Medical Facility at Gateway Transit Center

"Located on a portion of the current Gateway Transit Center site at Northeast 99th Avenue, the project represents the first major development project of Type 1 construction and Class A office space in the Gateway area in more than a dozen years." - as reported in the Portland Business Journal

The Oregon Clinic was considering moving out of the Portland, with 170 skilled medical professionals. A $17.75 million allocation of New Markets Tax Credits structured and closed in July, 2005 by PNMF, helped retain these important jobs and health services in Portland by constructing a new facility at the Gateway Transit Center in NE Portland, the first major development project of Type 1 construction and Class A office space in the Gateway area in more than a dozen years. The facility includes the medical and day surgery practice, offering services in cardiology, pulmonology, gastroenterology and medical oncology as well as an ambulatory surgery center, on-site diagnostic imaging, a laboratory, a sleep lab and a nuclear medicine facility. The project is anticipated to attain a LEED Gold Certification from the US Green Building Council, including advanced strategies for energy savings, indoor air quality, water savings and natural daylighting. The building was constructed to allow for future construction that may include low income senior housing.

Community Impacts Report - Oregon Clinic Gateway Medical Building

The White Stag Project

Oregon's Premier University Consolidates Portland Programs in Classic Old Town Buildings

"There'll be hundreds of people in and out of (buildings on the block) on a daily basis," DeMuro said. "That's a huge impact on that neighborhood. Typically, that type of investment is contagious, and we hope to see other redevelopment activity on neighboring buildings." - Developer Art DeMuro, as reported in the Portland Business Journal

To unify its geographically dispersed Portland programs at a single location, the University of Oregon ("U of O") will gather its Architecture and Allied Arts; Journalism; Law; Service programs; administration; a library, food center, black box theater/gallery, and ground-floor bookstore with cafe at the White Stag Block in Old Town. The new location supports 250 students (expected to reach 400 in 2 years) and 75 to 100 employees. The $30.3 million, 133,000 square foot project was able to begin construction thanks to a $19 million New Markets Tax Credit investment from PNMF. The project includes the revitalization of three historic buildings, White Stag/Hirsch-Weiss Building (1907), Bickel Building (1892) and the Skidmore Building (1889), which are part of the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, home of the second largest collection of cast-iron buildings in the United States (New York's SOHO district has the largest). The project has received a LEED Gold designation, with some LEED Platinum interior space, from the US Green Building Council.

Community Impacts Report - The White Stag Project

The Fremont Building

A Vacant Lot in NE Portland Springs to Life

"From the wreckage of the crime-ridden and then long-vacant King Food Mart has emerged a new gateway to the King neighborhood, the vision of two men who grew up nearby and returned to help restore the area's vitality." - Eric Hoover Barnett, The Oregonian

For years the site of the former King's Market in Northeast Portland lay vacant at the corner of Fremont Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The intersection has historical importance in the social, cultural and economic life of the neighborhood and is home to Portland's most ethnically-diverse population. Prior to the availability of New Markets Tax Credits, the area had difficulty attracting new investments. PNMF was able to structure and close an investment that assisted local minority developers to move this 9,500 SF, $4.2 million mixed-use project to completion thanks to a $4.2 million allocation of New Markets Tax Credits. The Fremont Building includes a new restaurant and wine bar, second-floor office space and parking.

Community Impacts Report - The Fremont Building

Smith's Block

NMTCs Help Put One of Portland's Oldest Buildings Back in Business

"In the late 1860s and early 1870s, six brick structures with cast-iron columns and architectural ornaments were erected along a block of what is now Southwest Naito Parkway. Each was 25 feet wide and 100 feet deep...sitting flush to one another, the six looked like a single building, known as Smith's Block...one housed an early Portland stock exchange, and others held a variety of wholesale and retail businesses." - Fred Leeson, The Oregonian

The Smith's Block Building (1872) is one of the oldest buildings in Portland's waterfront area and a stunning example of cast-iron architecture. The Old Town/Skidmore Fountain area of the city hosts the country's second largest collection of existing cast-iron buildings. RV Kuhns and Associates (Kuhns) purchased the property in March, 2005 with the intent of rehabilitating the building to incorporate his financial management and consulting firm in addition to a restaurant and courtyard area. Thanks to an allocation of $7.5 million in NMTCs, the project is under construction.

The building's historic facade has been retained while the interior will receive a significant seismic upgrade in addition a range of interior improvements that enable it to provide very high quality office space for 61 Kuhns staff who will be moving there along with a new restaurant. Kuhns has been in business since 1985 and has experienced considerable growth since then. It anticipates adding another 15 employees at the site over a two or three year period.

Smith's Block is part of the Portland Development Commission's downtown waterfront strategic plan, which called for the addition of over 1,000 new housing units to the Old Town area, substantial ground floor retail, and restaurants along with more day time office employees. When completed in late 2007, the Smith's Block will have benefited from an approximate $7 million upgrade provided by public and private resources, and will help stimulate redevelopment of adjacent properties such as surface parking lots nearby, thereby helping achieve the public/private vision for the area.

12W

Catalytic Project in West End Helps Fund Additional Projects

"The so-called West End section of downtown is... a cornucopia of surface parking lots waiting to be developed and historic properties ready for a tune-up. Shelters for drug addicts and the formerly homeless are over here; the construction on a new corporate headquarters over there. The mixture of the new and the old creates an exceedingly rich environment." - Mark Edlen, managing principal of Gerding/Edlen Development, which is building a half-block high-rise in the area.

The "12W" project, located at 12th and Washington Avenues in Portland's West End is one response to initiatives such as Central City 2000, Prosperous Portland, The West End Plan of 2002, and Portland Development Commission's Five-Year Budget in the support of the No Net Loss Policy for affordable housing in the Central City. Located on SW Washington at 12th, the $137.86 million mixed-use building is the first major new commercial structure in the West End in more than 20 years. A $29 million allocation of New Markets Tax Credits from PNMF was structured and closed to help move this project into the construction phase. 12W will include five floors of below grade parking; ground-floor retail; three floors of commercial space; and 17 floors of one-, two-, and three-bedroom rental units, approximately 20% of which will be available to renters between 80% and 120% of Portland Median Family Income. 12W is targeted to achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold rating from the U.S Green Building Council.

Community Impacts Report - 12W

Albina Head Start Early-Childhood Development Center

NE Portland Early-Childhood Development Program to Benefit from NMTC Investment

Portland New Markets Fund I is sponsoring the creation of an early-childhood development center in Northeast Portland. The center will provide a locally accessible resource for children and their families, and will be a home to educational programs for children and adults which are functionally integrated with early-childhood development. The development center will also provide resources which support the kind of home-based businesses that help families remain economically viable. PFF acquired site control in 2007 and is completing a stabilization project in 2008 to improve the quality of the existing buildings for continued use by the Albina Head Start program. Pre-planning is underway to design additional components of the site that will allow the facility to accomplish its longer term objectives.