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THE FUND AT WORK

history

Community Development Capital was started in January 2000 in response to the rapid growth of blighted properties across the City of New Orleans. In 1999 this number was estimated at 35,000 properties, leading a group of respected community development bankers to attempt to address the issue. They established CD Capital as the mechanism through which developers would be able to gain access to the affordable capital they needed to acquire and rehabilitate distressed, abandoned, and blighted properties throughout the New Orleans metropolitan area.

In 2001 – our first full year of operations – CD Capital secured $375,000 in investment capital from local banking partners, including Hibernia National Bank (now Capital One N.A.). With startup capital in place, CD Capital turned its attention to U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institution Fund to secure a matching loan amount, which was secured in January 2002. During that same year, CD Capital was able to secure investments from a number of other local banks and from Fannie Mae, raising its total loan pool to $1.3 million. Today, CD Capital’s loan pool stands at $1.68 million.

We completed its first loan in January 2002 for $150,000 to the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, and through the end of 2007 have made 17 loans totaling $3.5 million. In total, these loans have resulted in the development of over 1,500 affordable housing units. CD Capital has historically offered four basic financing products to developers of affordable housing – acquisition, construction lines of credit, pre-development loans as well as microlending.