AltCap banks $55M in tax credits to bolster KC’s underserved entrepreneurs

A huge award will enable AltCap to make a broader entrepreneurial impact in low- to moderate-income communities throughout Kansas City.

AltCap — a Kansas City-based community development financial institution that focuses on underserved populations — has received a $55 million new markets tax credit award from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The award enables AltCap to continue financing high-impact investments and projects in economically challenged parts of Kansas City, said Ruben Alonso, president of AltCap.

“We are thrilled to receive this allocation award and thank the CDFI Fund as well Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt for being such a strong champion and advocate for the NMTC Program,” Alonso said in a release. “This allocation will allow AltCap to not only support more high-impact investments in distressed communities throughout Kansas City but also continue to grow as a uniquely positioned economic development stakeholder that empowers people and communities to thrive.”

Since 2008, AltCap has received $158 million in new market tax credits to finance job-creating businesses, nonprofits and real estate development projects. In Kansas City, the credits have helped finance such projects as manufacturing and distribution facilities, commercial real estate developments, historic redevelopment, and community health and education facilities.  

In November, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation awarded AltCap and three other microfinance lenders $300,000 each.

Through the $1.2 million gift spread between AltCap, Women’s Business Center, KC Hispanic Economic Development Corporation and Justine PETERSEN, the microfinance program offers capitalization opportunities for the nonprofit microlenders and Community Reinvestment Act credit opportunities for local banks.

The KC Microfinance Portfolio loans will be distributed this spring and sold to banks in the summer. Initially, the loans are expected to provide funds to 20 to 30 businesses, the Kauffman Foundation said, but have the potential to help a broader pool of local entrepreneurs.

Underrepresentation of minority groups and women hurts the U.S. economy by reducing the number of businesses and jobs they would otherwise create, according to the foundation. If minorities started and owned companies at the same rate as white entrepreneurs, the U.S. would have more than 1 million more businesses and as many as an extra 9.5 million jobs, according to Kauffman Foundation data.