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April 2014 • Volume V • Issue IV
Published by Novogradac & Company LLP
Mile High United Way Lands New Headquarters
TERESA GARCIA, STAFF WRITER
M
ile High United Way (MHUW), the oldest United
Way organization in the country, will have new
headquarters when the $23 million Morgridge
Center for Community Change opens in August. Located
in Denver’s Curtis Park neighborhood, less than 2 miles
from MHUW’s current facility, the 63,000-square-foot
building will include the 10,000-square-foot CoBank
Leadership Center, which will offer three times as much
conference space as MHUW’s current headquarters. The
new building will also have nonprofit incubation space
and a 1,500-square-foot café operated by Work Options for
Women, a nonprofit culinary training program designed
to help prepare economically disadvantaged women for
jobs in the food service industry. The new building will
house expanded space for MHUW’s 2-1-1 call center,
which receives more than 125,000 calls per year from
people needing assistance with basic needs.
NOVOGRADAC & COMPANY LLP
MHUW has occupied its current facility in Denver’s
Highland neighborhood for 29 years, and its decision
to relocate was based on more than just the need for
more space. “When we moved in, [Highland] was a
neighborhood that was very rich in history, but overlooked
by the city,” said Christine Benero, MHUW’s CEO. She
said the neighborhood has since been transformed into
one of hottest real estate markets in Denver and that
MHUW wanted to help do the same for the Curtis Park
neighborhood. “We were sitting on a tremendous asset,”
said Benero. “We began looking at potentially selling the
land and leveraging the sale into another community that
has tremendous history, great diversity and great culture
but that was overlooked. We want to help become the
economic driver to make that community thrive.” The
project will create about 72 full-time construction jobs, but
Benero said the greatest economic impact will happen in
the long term, as the center attracts more investment into
continued on page 2
Rendering: Courtesy of Mile High United Way
Mile High United Way’s new, 63,000-square-foot headquarters is being financed with new markets tax credits.
NEW MARKETS TAX CREDIT
Photo: Courtesy of Mile High United Way
Mile High United Way (MHUW), the oldest United Way organization in the country, will have new headquarters when the $23 million Morgridge Center for Community Change
opens in August
continued from page 1
the neighborhood. “This is less about job creation, than from CoBank, $1 million from the Anschutz Foundation,
to bring economic development and traffic into that area,” $1 million from the city and county of Denver and
said Benero. “The jobs will follow [with] the more traffic $200,000 from PCL Construction, which is also the
that we can get into that space.”
general contractor.
Financing
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Still, the project had a funding gap. When MHUW
decided to explore the possibility of using the new
markets tax credits (NMTCs) to help fill the financing gap,
it hired S.B. Clark Companies, a Denver-based financial
consulting firm, to provide guidance at the qualified active
low-income community business (QALICB) level and to
help find NMTC financing. “The new markets tax credits
made a big difference. The net benefit was almost $4.5
million after all transaction costs, reserves, compliance
and asset management fees. That’s a huge amount for a
nonprofit to have to replace through capital fundraising,
and it gave them the opportunity to pull together the
“It’s quiet not in the sense that we’re not incredibly proud, project in a timeline that was effective,” said Laura Clark,
but to make sure [contributions] were above and beyond” vice president at S.B. Clark Companies.
what MHUW typically raises for programs, said Benero.
The project received several donations including $4 Monica Clark Petersen, an associate consultant at
million from Morgridge Family Foundation, $1 million S.B. Clark Companies, said one of the challenges was
Leslie Hannon, MHUW’s chief financial officer (CFO),
said that $10 million—nearly half of the project’s total
funding—came from the sale of MHUW’s current
headquarters. She said that the buyer agreed to let
MHUW remain in their current building while the new
headquarters is under construction. Meanwhile, she said
MHUW embarked on a “very quiet” capital campaign
for the project. “We wanted to make sure it didn’t affect
other fundraising that supports our work to improve lives
of individuals, families and children,” said Hannon.
continued on page 3
finding enough NMTC allocation and working out president of investments and lending said at press time.
which allocatees would be involved. “There’s just a short “For us, it’s less about the building than about what goes
time between the [NMTC] awards announcement and on inside the building.”
closing,” said Petersen. In the end, the project used NMTC
allocations from three community development entities “[MHUW] has the uniqueness of being able to assist other
(CDEs): $5 million from Wells Fargo; $5 million from nonprofits and reach out to the needs of the community
National Community Investment Fund (NCIF); and $8.9 in terms of programs and education for children, families
million from the Colorado Growth and Revitalization and individuals—the services needed to support
Fund, which is administered by Colorado Housing and low-income households,” said Estelle Bartholow, vice
president for Wells Fargo’s Community Lending and
Finance Authority (CHFA).
Investment group. Wells Fargo provided $6.1 million in
“Without the tax credit, Mile High United Way could not tax credit equity and its business banking team provided
afford to build the building as proposed. They would have a $2.5 million bridge loan outside of the NMTC structure.
had needed to reduce the size of the facility, which would Native American Bank, a local community development
have directly impacted the local services they provide,” financial institution (CDFI), participated in the bridge
said Wyatt Jones, CHFA’s community development loan loan with Wells Fargo.
officer.
MHUW plans to fundraise an additional $3 million to
Others agreed. “There was a definite funding gap, but the help support its programs, café, property maintenance
bigger issue was that they not constrain their program reserve and technology needs. Benero said that continued
efforts. [The NMTC funding] definitely enables them to fundraising and support will allow “United Way to
continue doing what they’re doing and to expand the continue the legacy of investing in communities, changing
scope of their services,” Victoria Lakes-Battle, NCIF vice people’s lives and being part of the future of Denver.” ;
NEW MARKETS TAX CREDIT
continued from page 2
Mile High United Way Headquarters
Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits 
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•
•
•
•
•
FINANCING
$10 million from land sale of Mile High United Way’s current headquarters
$5 million in new markets tax credit (NMTC) allocation from Wells Fargo, N.A.
$5 million in NMTC allocation from the National Community Investment Fund
$8.9 million in NMTC allocation from the Colorado Growth and Revitalization Fund
$6.1 million in NMTC equity from Wells Fargo
$8 million capital campaign
MAJOR CAPITAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS
•
•
•
•
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$4 million gift from Morgridge Family Foundation
$1 million gift from the Anschutz Foundation
$1 million gift from the city and county of Denver
$1 million gift from CoBank
$200,000 gift from PCL Construction
April 2014
This article first appeared in the April 2014 issue of the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits.
© Novogradac & Company LLP 2014 - All Rights Reserved
continued on page 4
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NEW MARKETS TAX CREDIT
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continued from page 3
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April 2014
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2014 All rights reserved.
ISSN 2152-646X
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