Strengthening a community in South Dallas

When the CEO of the Park South YMCA reached out to Jorge Calderon in 2020 about serving a second term as a board member, the Capital One Dallas market president hesitated. 

It wasn’t because of the time and effort involved, nor did he doubt the need. “This community has a rich history, but it has also experienced structural disadvantages around education, around food deserts, around resources, and job attainment levels,” Calderon says. “So, it has faced headwinds for a long time.” 

His hesitation, he explains, came from hard experience. “I've been in this community for 33 years, and I’ve heard a lot of big plans from business and city leaders who set out to improve the South Dallas area,” he says, “but I didn’t see a lot of movement in those neighborhoods that have the most need.”

As it turned out, the organization had ambitious goals. The Park South Y was operating out of a 50-year-old facility needing a complete overhaul to address the community’s widening gaps in accessibility to health care, education, economic opportunity, safety and quality of life.

Those plans became a reality this year when the Park South YMCA broke ground on a 41,000-square-foot complex to better serve community needs in South Dallas' historic Queen City district. The previous building was demolished to make way for the new facility, which will include upgraded spaces for seniors and community activities, a new swimming pool, a fitness center, a commercial kitchen and a dedicated preschool wing. 

The Y Preschool, which offers year-round program enrollment,  also provides daily lunch and snacks in addition to swimming lessons. “It makes me really proud that our YMCA was so committed to building a state-of-the-art facility for a lot of people who lack the resources of wealthier communities,” Calderon notes. 

“We are committed to serving our communities and to helping create opportunities for everyone in North Texas to thrive and develop connections, skills and unique experiences they otherwise may not have access to,” said Curt Hazelbaker, president and CEO of YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas. “By building a new Park South Family YMCA, we’re expanding our capabilities, while generating the fresh, welcoming facility that this community deserves, for today’s youth and for the future. ”   

When it opens in 2025, the new facility will serve as the hub of the Y's strategic plan for South Dallas with an anticipated service increase of 35%. 

Capital One served as the investor for the $18 million project using tax incentives, and in association with the Dallas Development Fund and Texas Mezzanine Fund. The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program is a federal program that Capital One has participated in since 2005. 

“We have extensive experience working with community facilities such as this, and specifically with YMCAs across the country,” explains John Chamberlain, managing director, Tax Credit Finance at Capital One. “We help them grow and expand to bring new services to low-income communities.” 

“The NMTC program works perfectly for organizations like the Park South Y because it significantly lowers the amount of money they have to raise to accomplish a project,” Calderon says. 

The NMTC program offers investors a credit against their federal income tax in exchange for making equity investments in certified Community Development Entities (CDEs), including the Capital One Community Renewal Fund. These CDEs subsequently use the invested capital to award grants and offer loans in economically distressed areas. Capital One has invested more than $3.2 billion into over 250 NMTC developments in 39 U.S. states and territories. 

“Our team is constantly traveling the country, coast to coast, going to these communities, meeting with non-profit organizations as well as for-profit companies that can use the New Markets Tax Credit program,” Chamberlain says. “It is truly inspiring to see how our investments are making a real impact when you actually go into the communities and talk to the people who are using the services.”

NMTC investments can have a multiplying effect on communities, improving lives across the board. “It’s in our best interest, long-term, to improve this community, because the better our citizens are in terms of educational attainment, job training, and the ability to access the health and wellness services that the YMCA provides, the better it will be for everybody around,” Calderon explains. 

Historically, the NMTC program has generated $8 of private investment for every $1 invested by the U.S. government.

“This is a story about increasing equity within a community,” says Chamberlain. “It shows how you can build equitable facilities so that no matter where a person lives, they know that they can have a quality facility that they can go to for education, health services, financial literacy, daycare and so much more.”

For Calderon, investing in the community is a personal matter. “I have great memories of going to the Y when I was a teenager in a small community in Southern Indiana, and I have served the YMCA here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for quite a while as a board member and as a finance committee member,” he says. 

“Just think about all those residents from the area that are also going to the Y for so many reasons: parents who can improve their education and job skills because they can drop the kids and go get training; teenagers who have a safe environment for after school designed to minimize dropout. They stay in school and then go to college. And then they come back and they serve those communities. So, beyond just the dollars, this type of project touches a lot of lives.”

Learn more about Capital One’s commitment to stimulating economic activity in underserved areas through the New Markets Tax Credit program.