TRF's Charter School Portfolio Grows to $95 Million

This past quarter three District of Columbia charter schools raised the total to 39 schools with a total capacity of over 20,000 students that TRF has financed to-date. Among them was the top-performing charter school in the District for the last three years, KIPP DC's KEY Academy. TRF provided $1.4 million of sub-debt which leveraged KIPP DC’s ability to attract attractive senior financing for a new elementary school that will build on the success of its middle school. KIPP DC will acquire land to construct a new $18.4 million, 65,000 square foot facility to house the new elementary school and provide a temporary site for the middle school until its new facility is complete in 2009. As of March 2007, TRF has originated 66 charter school loans totaling over $95 million.

A rendering of KIPP DC's new facility.

A TRF map indicating foreclosures in Philadelphia and the neighborhoods (orange) TRF sampled for its study.

TRF's Newest Study Reveals Patterns of Predatory Lending in Philadelphia

One in every 30 Philadelphia homeowners has been touched by predatory lending. For those who have refinanced their mortgages multiple times, the probability of becoming a victim increases to one in seven. These are just some of the findings reported by Lost Values – A Study of Predatory Lending in Philadelphia, a rigorous local study that points to national solutions. TRF collected and analyzed mortgage and sale histories for 15,500 properties and interviewed a broad range of subject matter experts. The study found that predatory lending was most common in moderate-income neighborhoods and in neighborhoods that also tended to be predominantly African-American or Latino. Foreclosures were also more likely to occur in modest income neighborhoods and with sub-prime mortgage loans. Read Lost Values or selected news stories based on the study.

 

 

 

New Full-Service Supermarket Comes to Philadelphia's Kensington Neighborhood

The TRF-financed Supreme Supermarket opened last month in a low-income neighborhood in the Kensington area of Philadelphia. The already bustling 40,000 square foot store is the only full-service supermarket within a two-mile radius. Financed by TRF's Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative (FFFI), the store brought 70 new jobs to the community. FFFI has committed financing to 27 supermarket projects statewide in the last two years, a third of which have been outside the Philadelphia area. The stores represent a total of $22.9 million in financing, more than 2,442 new jobs and a total of 782,450 square feet of fresh food retail in underserved communities.

More Than $20 Million in NMTC Financing Last Quarter

Last quarter marked significant activity within our New Markets Tax Credit program. TRF successfully raised over $69 million in investments in support of this program, already using these investments to finance a broad range of projects. NMTC is financing a supermarket-anchored retail center in North Philadelphia known as Progress Plaza that will create over 200 new jobs. Crane Arts is a renovation project that is converting a former bath fixtures warehouse and a horse stable into artist and small business studios, workspace and gallery. The $4.2 million investment is in an old industrial section of Philadelphia where most buildings are more than 100 years old. TRF also financed the acquisition of an existing facility and the construction of an annex for the Jersey City Community Charter School. The $7.4 million investment will enable the K-7 school to add a grade as well as 14 new classrooms, a gymnasium and a cafetorium.

New Relationships Blossom as TRF's Housing Finance Expands Across the Mid-Atlantic

TRF’s $314 million in housing finance to-date is characterized by a strong commitment to relationship building. The last quarter was witness to the strengthening of several old relationships with new projects as well as the beginnings of several new relationships. Among the projects TRF is financing through new relationships are an affordable homeownership development by Manna in Washington, DC and a renovation project in Park Heights, Baltimore, co-developed by the Episcopal Housing Corporation (EHC) and I Can’t We Can, a drug recovery program active in Baltimore. The Park Heights project will renovate 2 three-story buildings, containing 48 apartments. Built in 1945, the rehabbed property will provide rental housing for households with income at or below 40% of the area median income, with several units designated for special needs occupants. EHC is a non-profit that provides affordable housing and supportive services to disadvantaged communities in Baltimore. 

One of the apartment buildings in Park Side, Baltimore that will be rehabbed by I Can’t We Can and the Episcopal Housing Corporation
Jeremy Nowak appointed to Philadelphia Children's Commission

Philadelphia Mayor John Street has named TRF's President and CEO Jeremy Nowak co-chair of the Philadelphia Children's Commission along with former Mayor W. Wilson Goode. The Commission was created by the Mayor in 2002 and is an independent body that works to improve the health, safety, well-being and development of the children and youth of Philadelphia, and to ensure the implementation of sustained policy that recognizes that attention to the needs of children and youth as a city priority. Jeremy has served on the Commission for several years as part of a distinguished group of leaders from the city's public, private, corporate and philanthropic communities, who are members of the Commission.

Winners of Philadelphia Sustainability Awards Announced

At an event co-sponsored by TRF at the Academy of Natural Sciences last week, complete with a green carpet ceremony, the first ever Philadelphia Sustainability Awards were announced. Individuals and organizations were honored for their role in making the Philadelphia region more sustainable and a better place to live. Among the winners were Judy Wicks, who won a lifetime achievement award for her work and the Wissachickon Charter School which won the People's Choice Award. A distinguished national jury of judges chose the ten winners in a broad range of sustainability categories. Other winners included The Food Trust,  the Philadelphia Police Forensic Science Center and PhillyCarShare.

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