BUFFALO, NY-Building America CDE Inc. is providing $9.2 million of New Markets Tax Credits to help finance construction of a $46.3-million Clinical Science Center at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute on Buffalo's east side. It's part of a financing package that includes a total of $30.5 million in NMTCs provided by Building America and three other Community Development Entities, plus donations and sponsor equity. Building America is a subsidiary of the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust.

Founded in 1989 as the first cancer center in the US, Roswell Park operates primarily through funding from private and governmental contracts, grants and donations. “The Roswell Park Cancer Institute is not only a source of critical healthcare services for residents of Western New York--it is also a major engine driving the region's economy,” says Eric Price, Building America's CEO. “Support for the new clinical center helps assure that Roswell can continue to grow as a regional institution as it expands its preeminent care to low-income and at-risk groups. We are proud to be part of this effort.”? ?

Measuring 142,000 square feet, the 11-story Clinical Science Center will enable the cancer institute to meet the growing demand in the region for both in-patient and outpatient services.?It will offer new patient screening, outpatient clinics, team diagnostic space, and other clinical and administrative services, including targeted cancer screening and counseling for high-risk, medically underserved populations in the surrounding low-income community. Roswell Park broke ground on it this past April.

The neighborhood where the new Clinical Science Center will be located has a poverty rate almost four times the national average and unemployment that is more than 1.5 times the national rate. The neighborhood is designated an Economic Development Hot Zone and a federal Renewal Community Zone, thereby qualifying the project for NMTCs.?