Only a mile apart in Memphis, Tennessee, two companies, TAG Truck Center and JNJ Logistics, have benefited from the Federal New Markets Tax Credit Program to finance new facilities and create jobs in an area with a more than 20 percent unemployment rate.
Working with Stonehenge Capital, McCormack Baron Salazar and Suntrust Community Capital, TAG Truck Center was able to secure $23 million in New Markets Tax Credits to finance its new 164,000-square-foot space in the bygone Mall of Memphis property. The facility, completed near the end of 2017, is now home to about 1,000 employees thanks to a merger between TAG and Texas-based Lonestar Truck Group.
With TAG leading the way with NMTCs in the area, JNJ breaks ground on their new facility at the beginning of 2019 according to the Daily Memphian. The Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) of Memphis & Shelby County estimates that over the next 15 years, the JNJ project will generate approximately $35.6 million in local tax revenue. The company is redeveloping the old Delta Square Shopping Center into their new 115,000-square-foot facility, housing over 500 employees.
These investments align with the Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s “Build Up, Not Out” initiative focusing on investments in blighted areas of Memphis.