The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program provides essential financing tools for community development projects across New Hampshire’s diverse economic regions. From Manchester’s urban neighborhoods to the North Country’s rural mill towns and the Seacoast’s growing innovation corridor, NMTC financing enables transformative investments in communities where traditional capital markets fall short. CBO Financial works with New Hampshire developers, advanced manufacturers, healthcare providers, and community organizations to structure financing solutions that strengthen the Granite State’s economy while addressing persistent challenges in both former industrial centers and remote rural areas.
New Hampshire’s economy—anchored by advanced manufacturing, healthcare and life sciences, technology, tourism, and precision agriculture—creates significant opportunities for strategic NMTC deployment. The program offers a 39% federal tax credit to investors who provide capital to qualified projects in low-income communities, substantially reducing borrowing costs and making economically vital projects financially viable. Whether you’re expanding a precision manufacturing facility, developing behavioral health infrastructure to address the opioid crisis, or revitalizing downtown districts in cities like Berlin or Claremont, NMTC financing can provide the capital advantage that moves your project from planning to implementation.
How the NMTC Program Works in New Hampshire
The NMTC Program functions through certified Community Development Entities (CDEs) authorized by the U.S. Treasury’s CDFI Fund to make Qualified Low-Income Community Investments (QLICIs) throughout New Hampshire. These investments must occur in census tracts where the poverty rate exceeds 20% or the median family income falls below 80% of the area median. Investors providing equity to CDEs receive tax credits totaling 39% over seven years—5% annually for the first three years and 6% annually for the remaining four years.
New Hampshire’s eligible census tracts span both urban centers and rural communities. In Manchester, the state’s largest city, several tracts qualify based on income levels, particularly in the city’s north and west sides. Nashua, Concord, Rochester, and Dover contain eligible tracts experiencing economic transition. The North Country—including Berlin, Gorham, Lancaster, and surrounding communities—presents extensive NMTC opportunities due to the decline of traditional paper and timber industries. Former mill towns throughout the state, including Claremont, Franklin, and Laconia, also feature qualifying census tracts.
The program supports sectors critical to New Hampshire’s economic priorities: advanced manufacturing facilities producing precision components, medical devices, and aerospace parts; healthcare infrastructure addressing rural access challenges and behavioral health needs; technology and innovation spaces supporting the state’s growing tech sector; food production and processing facilities; renewable energy projects; and mixed-use developments revitalizing historic downtown areas. CBO Financial connects New Hampshire projects with regional CDEs that understand the state’s development context and national CDEs with available allocation, ensuring projects meet NMTCTax Credit requirements while advancing state economic development goals.
Eligible Projects and Borrowers
New Hampshire projects eligible for NMTC financing address critical infrastructure and economic development needs across multiple sectors. Advanced manufacturing represents a firm fit given the state’s concentration of precision manufacturers and medical device companies. Facilities producing aerospace components, defense industry parts, medical devices, and specialized machinery qualify when located in eligible census tracts and create quality jobs accessible to low-income individuals.
Healthcare infrastructure projects remain a high priority for New Hampshire, given rural access challenges and the ongoing behavioral health crisis. Rural hospital expansions, specialty clinics, substance abuse treatment facilities, mental health centers, and community health centers all qualify when serving underserved populations. The state’s struggle with opioid addiction makes behavioral health facilities particularly compelling NMTC candidates with strong community impact metrics.
Technology and innovation spaces—including business incubators, research and development facilities, advanced manufacturing centers, and coworking spaces—qualify when supporting economic diversification in transitioning communities. Food production facilities, including value-added agriculture operations, craft beverage production, and local food distribution infrastructure, align well with New Hampshire’s growing farm-to-table economy and tourism sector.
Renewable energy projects, particularly those reducing energy costs for low-income residents or community facilities, qualify for NMTC support. New Hampshire’s high energy costs make these projects particularly impactful. Educational facilities such as charter schools, STEM learning centers, early childhood education facilities, and workforce training centers address the state’s talent development needs and qualify for financing.
Downtown revitalization projects in former mill towns represent another strong NMTC category. Historic building rehabilitation, creating mixed-use developments with commercial, office, and community space, helps restore economic vitality to NeHampshire’s’s aging industrial centers. These projects often combine historic tax credits with NMTC for enhanced financial structuring.
Eligible borrowers include for-profit businesses, nonprofit organizations, and local government entities developing qualified projects. The borrower must demonstrate substantial service to low-income communities and show that NMTC financing proves essential to project viability. CBO Financial creates comprehensive capital packages using CDFI guidelines that combine NMTC with conventional debt, equity, historic tax credits where applicable, state incentives, and federal programs like USDA Rural Development financing.
Benefits of the NMTC Program for New Hampshire
The NMTC Program delivers measurable economic benefits to New Hampshire communities while providing borrowers with advantageous financing terms. The 39% tax credit substantially reduces effective capital costs, often enabling projects to achieve debt service coverage ratios that satisfy lenders while maintaining operational viability. For capital-intensive projects common in New Hampshire—advanced manufacturing facilities, healthcare campuses, historic rehabilitation projects—this cost reduction frequently determines whether projects proceed or remain unrealized.
Beyond financial mechanics, NMTC investments generate significant community impact. Job creation and retention constitute primary program metrics, with projects committing to creating positions accessible to low-income individuals. In New Hampshire’s rural areas and former mill towns, where quality employment opportunities are limited and younger residents migrate to larger metropolitan areas, job creation carries substantial importance for community sustainability.
NMTC projects also catalyze significant private investment—each allocation dollar typically attracts multiple additional capital dollars, multiplying the program’s economic effect. This leverage proves especially important in New Hampshire’s smaller communities, where individual projects can substantially impact local economies. A manufacturing facility creating 50 jobs in Berlin or a mixed-use development in Claremont providing retail and office space represents a transformative investment at the community scale.
New Hampshire’s former industrial communities particularly benefit from NMTC’s ability to finance projects that serve essential community needs despite limited immediate profitability. Historic mill building rehabilitation, downtown retail restoration, community health centers, and workforce training facilities become feasible through NMTC’s cost reduction, helping these communities transition from declining industrial bases to diversified economies.
The program provides patient capital with flexible structures. Unlike conventional loans requiring immediate full debt service, NMTC transactions often feature interest-only periods during initial years, allowing projects to stabilize operations and build revenue before principal payments commence. This flexibility proves especially valuable for projects in transitioning markets or those with extended development timelines. To evaluate how NMTC could benefit your New Hampshire project, apply for NMTC financing through CBO Financial’s comprehensive analysis process.
Regulatory & State Development Framework
New Hampshire’s economic development ecosystem supports NMTC deployment through various state-level programs and agencies. The New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA) administers programs that often complement NMTC financing, including the Job Training Fund, Research and Development Tax Credit, and various business finance programs. The BEA’s Division of Economic Development works directly with companies on expansion and attraction projects, providing resources that can enhance NMTC transactions.
The Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA), New Hampshire’s state-level CDFI, provides additional financing tools, including tax credit programs and loan products that may complement NMTC structures. For projects with community facility components, the CDFA’s Community Development Block Grant program can provide gap financing. Understanding how to layer state resources with federal NMTC benefits significantly enhances project economics.
The New Hampshire Business Finance Authority (BFA) offers loan guarantees and direct lending programs that can work alongside NMTC financing, particularly for manufacturing and business expansion projects. For projects with historic preservation components—common in New Hampshire’s former mill towns—the state historic tax credit program provides additional financial benefits when combined with federal historic credits and NMTC.
Regional economic development organizations, including the Manchester Economic Development Office, Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, and North Country Council, provide project support and help identify available local incentives. CBO Financial maintains relationships with these organizations and coordinates their involvement in NMTC transactions to maximize total project support.
Our team ensures projects meet both federal NMTC compliance requirements and NeHampshire’s’s state regulatory framework. We coordinate timing between NMTC closing schedules, state incentive applications, historic preservation reviews where applicable, and local approval processes. This integrated approach prevents delays and ensures all financing components function harmoniously. New Hampshire’s business-friendly regulatory environment and absence of state income and sales taxes make it an attractive location for NMTC projects, advantages we leverage in structuring transactions.
Get Started with NMTC Financing in New Hampshire
Suppose you’re developing a project in a New Hampshire low-income community. In that case, whether in Manchester’s urban neighborhoods, the North Country’s rural towns, or former mill cities throughout the state, NMTC financing deserves serious consideration. The program’s capacity to reduce capital costs while directing investment to underserved areas makes it uniquely powerful for addressing New Hampshire’s development challenges, particularly supporting economic transitions in former industrial communities and maintaining financial viability in rural areas.
CBOFinancial’s process begins with a comprehensive project evaluation: verifying census tract eligibility, analyzing community impact potential, assessing NMTC suitability relative to other financing options, and identifying optimal CDE partners. We then develop customized capital stacks that may combine NMTC with conventional debt, equity investments, state incentives through BEA and CDFA, historic tax credits for rehabilitation projects, and federal programs like USDA financing for rural initiatives.
New Hampshire clients benefit from our established relationships with CDEs, tax credit investors, and lenders active in New England. We understand New Hampshire’s unique development context—the state’s advanced manufacturing strengths, the challenges facing former mill communities, the opportunities in the Seacoast’s innovation economy, and the specialized considerations for rural healthcare projects. This New Hampshire-specific expertise streamlines the NMTC process and increases allocation success rates.
Project size shouldn’t discourage NMTC exploration. While the program often finances large urban projects, New Hampshire transactions ranging from $2 million to $30 million regularly close using creative structuring approaches tailored to the state’s smaller market scale. The key is early engagement with experienced advisors who understand both NMTC mechanics and New Hampshire’s specific development landscape. Connect with new markets tax credit consultants at CBO Financial today to discover how NMTC can make your New Hampshire community development project a reality.