Program Overview & Objectives

CDFA seeks to help communities, businesses, and nonprofit organizations advance projects from concept initiation & planning to funding & implementation, by providing:

1. Sophisticated technical assistance; and
2. Dependable funding at the beginning phases of project development.

These two areas of identified need, coupled with CDFA’s mission to invest in New Hampshire’s people and communities, led to creation of the Predevelopment Loan Program.

The program offers loans for predevelopment activities, such as: studying the feasibility of renovating a downtown building, gathering public input on a project idea, developing a business plan for a new facility, creating architectural drawings, or seeking planning and zoning approval. Loans of up to $100,000 are available. Eligible projects must stand a reasonable chance of being financed and initiated within two years of the award.

In its pilot phase, the Predevelopment Loan Program supported two projects. The first: an $85,000 loan to fund the documentation, design, and draft programming of a downtown revitalization project that included a historic theatre. These predevelopment activities set the stage for the eventual purchase and renovation of the subject buildings. The second: a loan of $24,000 supported the historic assessment of a mill building central to the applicant community’s downtown economic revitalization plan. The completed assessment led to a successful capital campaign to renovate the mill.

In each case, a predevelopment loan enabled the project to move forward more quickly and helped solidify a case for large-scale financing to complete the project and repay the predevelopment loan. Both resulted in renovated buildings that have helped anchor downtown rejuvenation, spur additional economic development, and create new jobs in the heart of their community.

The Predevelopment Loan Program seeks to achieve the following objectives:

• provide financial and technical resources to explore and refine potential community economic development projects that would not otherwise move forward;
• develop a more robust community economic development technical assistance and financing network;
• help move qualifying projects to final approval and financing; and
• use successful results to promote the program and expand its reach and effectiveness.