Elsewhere, CCM purchased a bond on behalf of the AdvisorShares Global Echo ETF (GIVE) that helped finance The Village at Odenton Station, a 400,000-square-foot transit-oriented and sustainable residential and retail development in Odenton, Maryland.
Post-Katrina Reconstruction Finance
Although CCM has not yet invested in Hurricane Sandy, it has begun working with the New York City Housing Development Corporation to originate projects. Meanwhile, in the wake of Katrina in 2005 and the BP oil spill disaster in 2010, it has invested a total of $117.3 million in the Gulf Coast––$94 million in Louisiana and the balance in Mississippi, Texas, Alabama and Florida.
According to Van Scoy, so-called Go Zone (Gulf Zone Opportunity) Bonds were issued to help finance home ownership for people so they could move back to the Gulf Coast. Many were targeted toward first responders, teachers, hospital workers or low- or moderate-income people.
CCM's bond purchases also financed the reconstruction of affordable rental properties––many of them LEED-certified or otherwise environmentally sensitive. Among them was the Henriette DeLille House, originally built in l987 by the Sisters of the Holy Family, one of the oldest convents in the country and one led by women of color.
But while most of CCM's Katrina investments are Fannie Mae or Ginnie Mae securities, the portfolio also consists of municipal bond issues that financed the revitalization of several blocks or even an entire county, rather than just a specific apartment complex in the areas that were hardest hit.
And because many of these issues are about redeveloping infrastructure, Van Scoy says they often include several components that can include transportation, education, and building roads, schools and hospitals.
Wind Turbines And Goat’s Milk
Two years ago, with $200 million invested in renewable energy and green jobs and housing, CCM claimed to be the largest green fixed-income investor in the country. But while the firm has not continued to tally the figures, Van Scoy says the fund's investments have been a lot more environmental during the past two years. Today, for example, one-third of the fund's rental properties have some sort of environmental component and many are LEED-certified.
But it's not just housing. Bonds purchased by the fund have also financed the construction of wind turbines, solar panels, bio-fuels and green small businesses including sustainable and organic farms.
For example, CCM invested in "clean energy renewable bonds" that allowed Tippecanoe Valley, a school corporation in Indiana, to build a wind turbine that will generate 70% of the power used on the high school and middle school campuses. Since this will eliminate most of the school's electric bills for the next 25 years, it allows Tippecanoe Valley to fund more teachers.
Just as CCM handpicks and custom pools single-family mortgages, it also custom pools SBA loans. Last year, it originated an SBA loan to FireFly Farms, a creamery in Accident, Maryland that uses agriculturally sustainable, locally sourced fresh goat's milk and has won multiple national and international awards for its premium goat cheese. The loan then became part of a $4.1 million SBA pool that CCM invested in.