City First Bank
City First Bank delivers innovative and creative community development finance services to low- and moderate-income communities of Washington DC and its nearby suburbs and Los Angeles, California. City First provides a range of banking services to nonprofit organizations and small businesses. They offer competitive returns to socially motivated investors who want a double bottom line return. With aid from the New Markets Tax Credit, they are able to finance large scale projects and offer subsidized financing for eligible projects that offer demonstrated and sustained benefits in low wealth neighborhoods.
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The National Football League (NFL) announced today its partnership with Contract with Black America Institute (CWBA), an economic inclusion-focused initiative led by artist and entrepreneur O'Shea Jackson, also known as Ice Cube. The CWBA and NFL partnership enhances the NFL's dedication to increasing economic equity and partnerships with Black owned businesses. The collaboration focuses on identifying League-wide opportunities in the financial, tech, and production sectors, with a concentration on increasing direct and indirect spend to national Black businesses to help close America's racial and economic wealth gap. Driven by a strong internal commitment to diversify the NFL's business partnerships with organizations like CWBA, the League has spent and allocated $125 Million with Black owned and operated businesses such as Ariel Investments, CityFirst/Broadway Bank, Cover Communications, and Fearless Technology during the last year.
Yesterday, the CDFI Fund released the FY2021 Capital Magnet Fund (CMF) award announcement, awarding over $336 million to 32 CDFIs and 27 Nonprofit Housing Organizations. This year: Three CDFI banks or bank holding companies and one CDFI bank affiliate received awards: Beneficial State Bancorp, Inc.; Central Bank of Kansas City; City First Enterprises, Inc.; and Legacy Bank & Trust Company; of the three CDFI banks or bank holding companies and one CDFI bank affiliate, all were either CDBA members or affiliated with a CDBA member; collectively, these banks increased their awards by $4.9 million over their previous award amounts; a total of 146 organizations applied for the FY2021 round requesting more than $991 million in CMF awards. Of those applicants, three were banks or thrifts and two were depository institution holding companies.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development recently announced the inaugural awardees of the Commercial Property Acquisition Fund — a program that provides eligible businesses down payment assistance for the acquisition of commercial property in the District. The Commercial Property Acquisition Fund counts as the first grant program in the District of Columbia created to help entrepreneurs and small business owners who face barriers to accessing capital to purchase their commercial properties. The fund provides down payment assistance through grants up to $750,000 or 25% of the total acquisition cost, whichever is lower, to eligible businesses looking to maintain and expand their operations by acquiring commercial property in the District. The $4 million Commercial Property Acquisition Fund is administered by the largest Black-led bank in the country, City First Bank, with its co-headquarters located in the District.