Trolley District

New Markets Tax Credit Financing Redevelops Blighted Historic
Industrial Buildings into Dynamic Neighborhood Hub for Healthy
Foods and Local Entrepreneurs

Five historic buildings built between 1880 and 1920 that originally served
as streetcar and machine shop space have sat vacant for nearly 30 years
on the historic near East Side of downtown Columbus. New Markets Tax
Credit (NMTC) financing has enabled Connect Realty, LLC, a local historic
preservation developer, to redevelop this facility into a new, 61,000 square foot
mixed-use project called “Trolley District,” which will serve as a beacon for the
neighborhood, providing a much-needed healthy foods market and space for
local students and entrepreneurs.

Finance Fund provided $12 million of federal NMTC allocation and $2.564
million of state NMTC allocation to the project. Brownfield Revitalization
provided an additional $4.6 million of federal NMTC allocation for the project.

Trolley District will be anchored by the East Market, a 25,000 square foot fresh
food market space comprised of 19 stalls, including designated space for
Columbus City School students, who will have the opportunity to take part in a
variety of internships and training programs on site. Job training programs for
students will focus on culinary arts, marketing, and construction management.
Through a partnership with nearby East High School, Trolley District will build
out a new 100-gigabit per second high-speed internet at the East Market and at
East High School. Community members, patrons, and other visitors of the East
Market will also be able to enjoy free high-speed internet access.

Sited on three acres of long-neglected brownfield land, the project is located
in a severely distressed community that experiences a poverty rate of over
33.2%; a median family income equal to 53.7% of the applicable area median
family income; and an unemployment rate of 17.3%, which is 2.08 times the
national average.

“Trolley District is the result of years of planning and collaboration between
local entrepreneurs, community stakeholders, investors, developers, and public
and private funders,” said Brad DeHays, Founder of Connect Realty. “The New
Markets Tax Credit allocation that Finance Fund brought to the project was one
of the final puzzle pieces to fall into place, which ultimately enables us to move
forward with redeveloping a former brownfield into a space that will become a
hub of activity for local businesses, patrons, and community members of the
East Side and beyond.”

Trolley District will offer local restaurants and entrepreneurs affordable rents,
function as a minority business incubator, provide health co-op programming
for nearby high school students, and house dedicated meeting space available
to the community. This project will serve as the lynchpin pin of a groundswell of
stabilizing economic development eff orts on the near East Side of Columbus,
bringing jobs and economic activity to three neighborhoods surrounding the
project site that have experienced historic disinvestment: Franklin Park/Near
East Side, King Lincoln, and Olde Towne East.

Project Categories