Swift's Management Team
History of Swift
The Swift Factory began it's life as a Gold Leafing manufacturing company, and started in a small farm house (The White House) that remains on site today, dating back to 1887, and eventually growing into the roughly 70,000 square foot campus we see today. At it's height, Swift & Sons was the largest gold leafing manufacturer in the country, and experienced the industrial decline that much of New England's factories experienced in the 2nd half of the 20th century, eventually closing it's doors in 2005.
How Redevelopment Started
Donated in 2010 to national non-profit Community Solutions, the Swift Factory is an adaptive reuse project in one of Hartford’s poorest neighborhoods. The re-use of the building was determined through a 500 home neighborhood survey asking residents what they felt was most needed in order to help the neighborhood thrive; the responses clustered around, jobs, economic development, youth engagement, and safety, and hence, there is no residential component to the project.
With a strong community-engagement process, the project’s goals include job growth, economic development, community health, and community revitalization. This project will preserve a neighborhood anchor, while opening opportunities for a vibrant local economy and increase community resiliency.
Community Engagement
As a part of our larger neighborhood improvement effort, Community Solutions worked alongside the NERA/NRZ, residents, partners, and civic leaders to develop the Northeast Neighborhood Sustainability Plan (NNSP) using a Health Impact Assessment framework. The NNSP outlines the best opportunities for improving the health, infrastructure and environmental sustainability of the Northeast neighborhood. Using this recommendations of the NNSP Community Solutions has been hosting a variety of community engagement efforts through public art, bike safety, healthy food education, and pop up markets
Construction
As the developer of the Swift Factory, Community Solutions is committed to creating jobs and engaging the community in all phases of development, including construction. We extremely proud that our team has exceeded the goals stated below, with thousands of hours worked by residents of the neighborhood.
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Goal of 30% of the labor force (measured by total man hours) for the project to be performed by City of Hartford Residents
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Goal of 20% of the labor force (measured by total man hours) for the project to be performed by Minority workers.
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Goal of 6.9% of the labor force (measured by total man hours) for the project to be performed by Female Workers.
Grants & Funding Sources
Tax Credit Equity: $8,652,677
Eversource
US Bank
New Markets Tax Credit Allocations: $8,360,625
National Trust Community Investment Corporation
Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation
Boston Community Capital Public
Debt Financing: $7,300,000
The Capital Region Development Authority
Connecticut’s Department of Community and Economic Development (DECD)
Federal Grants: $3,811,240
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of Community Services
The Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. Economic Development Administration
Permanent Loan: $3,650,000
Boston Community Loan Fund
Pre-Dev Grants & Loans $1,214,560
DECD Biz Express
DECD-BMPP Program
Hartford Foundation for Public Giving
Travelers Grant
Private Donor
Deferred Developer Fee $957,872
Total Sources $ 33,946,974
The Developer - Community Solutions
Our Mission:
To create a lasting end to homelessness that leaves no one behind. We envision a more equitable society where homelessness is never inevitable, inescapable, or a way of life.
What we Do:
We don’t simply believe that all communities have the power to end homelessness — we work with the cities and counties making it a reality every day.
Community Solutions is a nonprofit that leads Built for Zero, a movement of more than 80 cities and counties driving down the number of people experiencing homelessness — and proving zero is possible.
By harnessing the full power of data, 11 of those communities have reached Functional Zero, a milestone indicating that homelessness is rare and brief for a population. In order to propel this movement toward an end of homelessness for all, we help communities use data to change how their homeless response systems operate, develop new models to close gaps in housing, disrupt homelessness from occurring altogether, and help communities create racially equitable response systems.
Learn more at www.community.solutions