Stonehenge health care investment highlighted in industry journal
The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in South Los Angeles is transforming the area’s health care landscape thanks to innovative investments made with federal New Markets Tax Credits. Stonehenge contributed to that transformation by investing in equipment that will service the hospital’s patient population.
The investment was highlighted in the January 2018 Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits, which provides news, analysis and commentary on affordable housing, community development and renewable tax credits. According to the article, New Markets Tax Credits, or NMTCs, are “being used to assure the newly opened hospital is equipped to deliver the highest quality of health care to some of Los Angeles’ lowest-income residents.”
“The second round of financing, provided by Stonehenge Capital, helped finance a computerized tomography (CT) scanner suite and telemetry equipment, both of which are critical technologies used to service the hospital’s expanding patient population,” the article states. The South L.A. community that the hospital serves is “one of the most medically underserved communities in the nation.”
Built in 1972, California’s King/Drew hospital opened after the Watts riots, when a commission found that a lack of access to adequate health care was among the primary civil injustices the community wanted to address. The original hospital then closed in 2007, again leaving the highly distressed community without critical health care services until Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital reopened in 2015.
“The King/Drew hospital was originally built out of civil unrest in the community, based on the need for quality health care. Using NTMCs strategically, Stonehenge’s goal was to help position the hospital to address vital community health care needs for generations to come,” Stonehenge Capital Director L’Quentus Thomas said.
Stonehenge Capital was the sole community development entity, according to Novogradac, providing a nearly $5 million NMTC allocation through the Federal New Market Tax Credits Program, which fosters private investment in low-income, underserved communities to create jobs and boost local economic activity. Stonehenge’s investment in MLK Hospital was projected to create 22 jobs.
New Markets Tax Credits often create a catalytic impact in underserved communities, generating a ripple effect for the economy, and the hospital is already looking ahead to plan for additional growth in the future.
Please click here to read a copy of the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits article.