The Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT), in New Haven, provides adult education and job readiness programs to reduce chronic unemployment and underemployment. ConnCAT and its affiliates also focus on economic development—acquiring and revitalizing commercial properties, investing in local businesses, and attracting new businesses to New Haven. The organization works to support a place-based impact investing ecosystem that finances gains in distressed communities.

ConnCAT Place on Dixwell is the new construction of a 65,000-square-foot facility to support workforce development and other community health and family services. It is part of a $58.7 million transformative effort by ConnCAT and its subsidiary, ConnCORP, to revitalize the city’s historic Dixwell Plaza, building a vibrant retail, residential and cultural hub.

The project will serve as the new headquarters for ConnCAT, including space for its technology, health care and culinary training programs. It will also offer business incubation opportunities, like pop-up retail; arts programming; and youth training and programs, as well as leased space for a local community health center, a children’s daycare center and Yale University which will provide community-serving services.

The site will include a public courtyard for community gatherings and cultural events, further enhancing the social cohesion of the neighborhood. The facility will be energy efficient and expects to earn LEED Silver standing once completed.

Broadstreet committed $7 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to the effort. The Thriving Communities Fund, capitalized by TD Bank and managed by Broadstreet, is the investor. The fund provides affordable capital to projects that might not otherwise be able to move forward, focusing particularly on commercial development and renovation projects that bring vitality to low-income communities.

With the new facility, ConnCAT will be able to serve 250 adult job training students; 240 youth through after school, high school and summer arts programs; 68 children in a new early childhood education space and 445 patients at a new youth trauma center.

But the project could not have moved forward without NMTC financing, as it could not secure enough conventional financing. The NMTC investment is helping the project create 119 permanent jobs and 242 construction jobs—all in a community with high rates of unemployment and poverty.