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Civic San Diego Recognizes Four Local Awardees for Strides and Community Efforts

September 25, 2019

YMCA of San Diego, Casa Familiar, U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation, and Wells Fargo Bank receive Civic awards

 

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (September 25, 2019) — On Wednesday, September 25, the Civic San Diego (CivicSD) Board of Directors honored four recipients for their participation and support of CivicSD’s ongoing projects and mission to foster innovative community partnerships to improve the quality of life in San Diego’s neighborhoods. The awards include Civic Leader Award, presented to Paul Sullivan, Executive Vice President of YMCA San Diego County; Project Impact Award, presented to Casa Familiar for their “Living Rooms at the Border” project; Investor Partner Award, presented to U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation; and Corporate Partner Award, presented to Wells Fargo Bank.

The Civic Leader Award was presented to Paul Sullivan, Executive Vice President of YMCA of San Diego County, in recognition of his ongoing support of the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program. The YMCA has worked with the Civic San Diego Economic Growth and Neighborhood Investment Fund (the Fund) twice through the Fund’s NMTC financing, which helped to build two YMCA facilities: the Copley-Price Family YMCA in City Heights and the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA in Southeastern San Diego.

The Project Impact Award was presented to Casa Familiar for their “Living Rooms at the Border” project, which is a New York Museum of Modern Art Awardee for design which weaves 10 units of affordable housing, new offices to expand social services, space for Casa’s “El K-Fe” Youth Barista Training Program for youth ages 16-24, a collaborative space for the UCSD Community Station, and lastly the rescue and re-use of an 1,800 square-foot old church structure to be re-launched as San Ysidro’s only theatre and recording studio. The project was financed with $9.3 million in New Markets Tax Credits. It is located at 114 West Hall Avenue in San Ysidro and plans to open in December 2019.

“Casa Familiar has been an integral part of many beneficial projects in San Ysidro. A facility such as this one is long overdue in this community,” said Carlos Vazquez, Civic San Diego Board Chair. “Congratulations to Casa for making this a reality. I am confident community members will make good use of the venue.”

The Investor Partner Award was presented to U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation in recognition of their continued support of the NMTC Program and their funding of more than $70 million in tax credits in four distinct projects: Copley-Price Family YMCA in City Heights, Family Health Center in Oak Park, Jackie Robinson Family YMCA in Mountain View and Ajinomoto Foods in Otay Mesa. U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation was the first investor to work with the Fund and has remained a willing investor on new deals including a fifth investment for the Access Youth Academy project in Encanto that is anticipated to close by the end of September.

The Corporate Partner Award was presented to Wells Fargo Bank (WFB) for their continued philanthropic support of $70,000 in foundation grants to strengthen community and economic development activities. WFB has been instrumental in providing resources which helped underwrite CivicSD’s Community Bus Tours, especially the Promise Zone area, expenses related to the Fund applying for federal designation as a Community Development Financial Institution, and to overhead involving CivicSD’s efforts in community and economic development activities.

CivicSD established these community awards to recognize and highlight the strong support it has received from its community partners and to share its story of community impact. CivicSD will continue to build relationships with partners to invest in San Diego’s neighborhoods.

“It is important to highlight the good work of our partners and to align ourselves with terrific partnerships that have accomplished something significant that improves our communities,” said Andrew T. Phillips, Interim President of CivicSD.

Congress established the New Markets Tax Credit program in 2000 to drive investment in both businesses and real estate projects in low-income communities. The program attracts investment capital to these communities by allowing corporations and individuals to receive a credit against their Federal income taxes in exchange for making direct equity investments in Community Development Entities (CDEs). In 2012, Civic San Diego formed the Civic San Diego Economic Growth and Neighborhood Investment Fund to become certified as a CDE. The main role of the CDE is to secure New Markets Tax Credit funds as well as manage Qualifying Low-Income Community Investments to continue the work of revitalizing San Diego’s underserved neighborhoods.

For more information regarding Civic San Diego, visit CivicSD.com.

 

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Last modified: March 28, 2022

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