The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program catalyzes essential investment throughout Ohio’s economically diverse communities. From Cleveland’s revitalizing neighborhoods to Cincinnati’s urban core, from Columbus’s opportunity zones to Youngstown’s post-industrial corridors, NMTC financing unlocks capital for transformative projects in areas where conventional lending remains insufficient. CBO Financial collaborates with Ohio developers, advanced manufacturers, healthcare systems, technology companies, and community organizations to structure comprehensive financing solutions that strengthen the Buckeye State’s economy while addressing persistent challenges in former manufacturing centers and Appalachian communities experiencing economic transition.
Ohio’s multifaceted economy—anchored by advanced manufacturing, healthcare and life sciences, logistics and distribution, technology, agriculture, aerospace, and financial services—creates exceptional opportunities for NMTC deployment. The program provides a 39% federal tax credit to investors who deploy capital in qualified low-income communities, substantially reducing borrowing costs and enabling projects that serve critical community needs. Whether you’re expanding automotive supply chain operations, developing healthcare infrastructure in Appalachian counties, creating mixed-use developments in Toledo or Akron, or building advanced manufacturing facilities in Dayton’s innovation corridor, NMTC financing delivers the capital efficiency necessary for project success in Ohio’s competitive markets.
How the NMTC Program Works in Ohio
The NMTC Program operates through certified Community Development Entities (CDEs) authorized by the U.S. Treasury’s CDFI Fund to make Qualified Low-Income Community Investments (QLICIs) throughout Ohio. Projects must be located 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 subsequent four years.
Ohio contains extensive eligible geography across its metropolitan areas, smaller cities, and rural communities. Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus—Ohio’s three largest cities—feature numerous qualifying census tracts throughout their urban cores and inner-ring suburbs. Toledo, Akron, Dayton, Youngstown, Canton, and Lorain contain substantial eligible areas experiencing post-industrial economic transition. Appalachian Ohio—including counties in the southeastern region such as Athens, Gallia, Meigs, Pike, and Scioto—presents widespread NMTC opportunities due to coal industry decline, limited economic diversification, and persistent poverty.
The Mahoning Valley, Rust Belt communities along Lake Erie, and former manufacturing centers throughout the state contain eligible census tracts reflecting decades of industrial job losses. Even in generally prosperous regions, specific neighborhoods qualify based on localized economic distress.
The program supports sectors central to Ohio’s economic priorities: advanced manufacturing, including automotive suppliers and aerospace components; healthcare infrastructure; logistics and distribution facilities leveraging Ohio’s strategic location, technology and innovation spaces; food processing and agricultural value-chain facilities; renewable energy projects; and mixed-use urban developments revitalizing downtowns. CBO Financial connects Ohio projects with the state’s robust network of regional and national CDEs, navigating compliance requirements while ensuring projects advance NMTC eligibility criteria objectives aligned with state economic development strategies.
Eligible Projects and Borrowers
Ohio projects eligible for NMTC financing address critical infrastructure and economic development needs across the state’s diverse regions. Advanced manufacturing represents a firm fit given Ohio’s deep manufacturing heritage and ongoing industrial evolution. Automotive parts suppliers supporting Ohio’s significant auto manufacturing presence, aerospace component manufacturers serving the state’s aviation cluster, precision machining operations, advanced materials production facilities, and clean energy equipment manufacturers all qualify when located in eligible census tracts and creating accessible employment opportunities.
Healthcare infrastructure projects remain critically important given disparities in healthcare access between urban centers and rural communities, particularly in Appalachian Ohio. Hospital expansions and modernizations, federally qualified health centers, specialty clinics, behavioral health facilities, substance abuse treatment centers addressing Ohio’s opioid crisis, and dental clinics all qualify when serving underserved populations. Ohio’s challenges with infant mortality, maternal health outcomes, and rural hospital closures make healthcare facilities particularly compelling NMTC candidates.
Logistics and distribution facilities leverage Ohio’s strategic location at the intersection of major transportation corridors. Warehousing and distribution centers, fulfillment operations, cold storage facilities, and logistics technology operations qualify when demonstrating job creation in low-income communities. Food processing and agricultural infrastructure projects—including meat processing, grain handling, specialty food production, and farm-to-market distribution—support Ohio’s robust agrarian sector while addressing food security needs.
Technology and innovation spaces—including incubators, accelerators, research parks, and advanced manufacturing centers—qualify when spurring economic development in transitioning communities. Ohio’s growing technology clusters in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Dayton create opportunities for tech-focused NMTC projects. Educational facilities such as charter schools, early childhood education centers, STEM learning facilities, and workforce training centers address academic needs and qualify for financing.
Renewable energy projects, including solar installations, energy efficiency retrofit facilities, and battery storage systems, align with Ohio’s energy transition goals. Cultural facilities, including museums, performing arts venues, and community centers, support Ohio’s creative economy. Downtown revitalization projects in cities like Youngstown, Canton, Lima, Mansfield, and Portsmouth leverage NMTC to transform vacant or underutilized properties into vibrant mixed-use developments.
Historic building rehabilitation combining state and federal historic tax credits with NMTC creates powerful financial structures for adaptive reuse projects, significant in Ohio’s older industrial cities with significant landmark building stock.
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 prove that NMTC financing is essential to project feasibility. CBO Financial creates comprehensive capital stacks through CDFI financing guidelines that combine NMTC with conventional debt, equity, JobsOhio incentives, Ohio Development Services Agency programs, historic tax credits, opportunity zone benefits, and other complementary funding sources optimized for Ohio’s development environment.
Benefits of the NMTC Program for Ohio
The NMTC Program delivers substantial economic benefits to Ohio communities while providing borrowers with competitive financing terms. The 39% tax credit significantly reduces effective capital costs, often enabling projects to achieve debt service coverage ratios that satisfy lenders while maintaining operational sustainability. For capital-intensive projects common in Ohio—advanced manufacturing facilities, healthcare campuses, large-scale logistics operations, mixed-use urban redevelopments—this cost reduction frequently determines project viability.
Beyond financial mechanics, NMTC investments generate measurable community impact aligned with Ohio’s development priorities. Job creation remains a central metric, with projects committing to create or retain positions accessible to low-income individuals. In Ohio’s distressed communities—whether in Cleveland’s East Side, Youngstown’s neighborhoods, or Appalachian counties—quality job creation carries substantial importance for breaking cycles of poverty and economic decline that have persisted since manufacturing losses decades ago.
NMTC projects catalyze significant private investment—each allocation dollar typically attracts multiple additional capital dollars, multiplying the program’s economic multiplier effect. This leverage proves especially important in Ohio’s transitioning communities, where individual projects can substantially impact local economies. A manufacturing facility creating 200 jobs in the Mahoning Valley or a mixed-use development anchoring downtown revitalization in Lima represents a transformative investment at the community scale.
Ohio’s former manufacturing communities particularly benefit from NMTC’s capacity to finance projects serving essential community needs despite challenging market conditions. Healthcare facilities in Appalachian counties, advanced manufacturing operations in Rust Belt cities, food retailers in urban food deserts, and downtown revitalization projects in declining communities become feasible through NMTC’s cost reduction and its attraction of mission-driven investors.
The program provides patient capital with flexible repayment structures. Unlike conventional loans requiring immediate full debt service, NMTC transactions often feature interest-only periods during initial years, allowing projects to stabilize operations before principal payments commence. This flexibility proves valuable for projects with extended lease-up periods or serving markets with limited immediate revenue potential. To evaluate your Ohio project’s NMTC potential, schedule a free project analysis with CBO Financial’s experienced team.
Regulatory & State Development Framework
Ohio’s sophisticated economic development infrastructure strongly supports NMTC deployment through comprehensive state and local programs. JobsOhio, the state’s privatized economic development corporation, administers substantial incentive programs that complement NMTC financing, including grants, loans, and tax incentives for job creation and capital investment. The Ohio Development Services Agency provides additional programs, including tax credits, workforce development support, and infrastructure assistance. Understanding how to layer these state resources with federal NMTC benefits can dramatically enhance project economics. Ohio’s Opportunity Zone program, administered by the Development Services Agency, creates additional tax incentive opportunities that can be strategically combined with NMTC, as many opportunity zones overlap with NMTC-eligible census tracts. For projects involving historic preservation—common in Ohio’s older industrial cities—the state historic tax credit program provides substantial financial benefits when combined with federal historic credits and NMTC.
The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) provides grants and financing for projects in Ohio’s 32 Appalachian counties, creating opportunities to layer ARC funding with NMTC for projects in southeastern Ohio. The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission administers various infrastructure and facility financing programs that may complement NMTC transactions.
Regional economic development organizations—including JobsOhio regional partners, Greater Cleveland Partnership, Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, Columbus Chamber of Commerce, and Dayton Development Coalition—provide project support and help navigate local incentive programs. These organizations maintain deep relationships with local governments and can facilitate community support essential for project success.
For manufacturing projects, Ohio’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership and various industry-specific organizations provide technical assistance and connections to supply chains. For healthcare projects, the Ohio Department of Health administers programs that may provide complementary funding, particularly for rural health clinics and behavioral health facilities.
CBO Financial ensures projects meet both federal NMTC compliance requirements and Ohio’s state regulatory framework. We coordinate timing between NMTC closing schedules, JobsOhio and Development Services Agency incentive applications, local approval processes, environmental reviews, and historic preservation reviews where applicable. Our deep experience with Ohio’s economic development ecosystem—including relationships with JobsOhio regional networks and understanding of local political dynamics—streamlines project execution across the state’s diverse markets.
Get Started with NMTC Financing in Ohio
Suppose you’re developing a project in an Ohio low-income community. In that case, whether in Cleveland’s urban neighborhoods, Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine district, Columbus’s opportunity zones, Appalachian counties, or former manufacturing cities throughout the state, NMTC financing merits thorough evaluation. The program’s capacity to reduce capital costs while attracting impact-focused investment to underserved areas makes it uniquely powerful for addressing Ohio’s development challenges, particularly supporting economic transitions in post-industrial communities and revitalizing urban cores.
CBO Financial’s approach begins with a comprehensive project assessment: verifying census tract eligibility, analyzing community impact potential, evaluating NMTC suitability relative to Ohio’s numerous other incentive programs, including JobsOhio resources and opportunity zone benefits, and identifying optimal CDE partners. We then develop customized capital stacks that may combine NMTC with conventional debt, equity investments, JobsOhio incentives, Development Services Agency programs, historic tax credits, ARC funding for Appalachian projects, and other complementary sources.
Ohio clients benefit from our established relationships with CDEs, tax credit investors, and lenders highly active in the state’s competitive markets. We understand Ohio’s unique development context—the automotive supply chain’s importance, the aerospace cluster’s opportunities, the challenges facing former manufacturing communities, the healthcare access gaps in Appalachian regions, and the revitalization dynamics in major urban centers. This Ohio-specific expertise increases NMTC allocation success rates and streamlines transaction execution.
Project size shouldn’t discourage NMTC exploration. Ohio transactions range from $3 million projects in smaller communities to $150 million developments in major metro areas, all successfully closing using sophisticated structuring approaches. Early engagement with experienced advisors who understand both NMTC mechanics and Ohio’s specific development environment maximizes success potential. Connect with NMTCS professionals at CBO Financial today to discover how NMTC can transform your Ohio community development vision into reality.