IN THIS ISSUE

Impact Capital provided a pre-development loan to Compass Housing Alliance of Renton, in the amount of $350,000. The money is to help pay for the work for the new construction of 58 units of housing for veterans and their families. They finally broke ground on February 20, 2010!

Community Building Project

Community Building

On February 5th Impact Capital celebrated the opening of SNAP's Spokane office in Vibrant Communities Spokane International District. Visitors from all over Spokane helped start business with a bang!

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Vibrant Communities Highlighted in Spokane Mayor's State of the City Address

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Home Depot 2010 Awards of Excellence for Affordable Housing Built Responsibly

Home Depot Foundation is accepting Letters of Inquiry for their $75,000 grant!

For more information visit their website at http://www.homedepotfoundation.org/awards_housing.html.

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Bridges Village Housing Cultivates Community for Native Americans

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Local Spotlight: SEAMAR

Impact Capital Helps SeaMar Build Healthy Communities

SeaMar has been an important part of the Latino community in the greater Seattle area since 1978. Within the last three Mural decades, Sea Mar has evolved into a major provider of health care and social services with ten medical and ten dental clinics throughout Western Washington. In addition to clinics, Sea Mar offers obstetrics and gynecology, minor out-patient surgery, and pediatric orthodontic care. What started out as a group of Hispanic activists and a retired doctor's efforts to help develop and provide a comprehensive health care center has become a successful nonprofit healthcare provider.

In August 2006, Impact Capital approved a $495,715 predevelopment loan for SeaMar's South Park Project. This project provides 38 units of family housing in South Seattle, which include 25 town home-style rental units and 13 ownership units for single families. In total, this project provided 38 units of family housing in the South Park neighborhood in South Seattle. This loan was critical in ensuring SeaMar's success in developing these homes.

Mike Leong, Sea Mar Housing Director recalls, "Our partnership with Impact Capital has been tremendous because we didn't have the means to do all the predevelopment work. This site was especially difficult because we had some rezoning issues and some complicated permitting issues. It was close to half of a million dollars that we needed to borrow from Impact Capital. Without this we wouldn't have been able to move the South Park Project forward."

Finished in 2009, the South Park Project has quickly filled up with families. According to Leong, the South Park Project already accomplished some remarkable achievements. We've moved a family of five, two parents with three kids that had been living in a pick-up truck for the past several weeks. To move them in on a cold chilly day like today into a warm apartment was an amazing thing.

We are proud to partner with SeaMar and we look forward to seeing the positive impact the South Park Project has on the health and well being of families, said Heyward Watson, CEO of Impact Capital.

Impact Capital played a unique role in helping to finance the South Park Project. By providing the high risk predevelopment funds, Impact Capital acted as a catalyst to push the project forward.

"It would have been difficult [if the predevelopment loan was not approved]. We would have had to come up with money out of our operating budget and that would have been a huge challenge. And we wouldn't have been able to subsidize that so the other choice would have been to look at private lending and that also is a huge challenge. I think it's important that Impact Capital and other agencies were able to help with the pre development loan."

Impact Capital takes the riskiest part of the financing package, but our reward is also the greatest. Since 1994 Impact Capital invested more than $92 million in Washington State, translating to 17,263 affordable ownership and rental housing units.

Although not everyone is moved in yet, families are pleased with their new homes. According to Leong, there continues to be a strong demand for affordable housing and SeaMar has discussed the potential for similar projects in the future.