Don't want to be a kill joy, but the structure of New Market Tax Credit is very complicated and some of the numbers can be deceiving. As with almost any government program, the numbers are not what they seem. Although a CDE is granted a certain dollar of tax credits to invest in the community, the actual credits sold to investors amount to 25%-30% of the granted total.
As an example, if a CDE was granted $100 million in credits to invest and they used it all for one project, they would only get to sell roughly $30 million in credits while the remaining $70 million of the project comes from more traditional financing sources (bank loans, etc.). In typical government speak, the CDE used $100 million worth of tax credits (i.e., the total financed amount, not the actual credits sold). Therefore, the project would only have to pay back $70 million (plus interest) and the roughly $30 million would be forgiven essentially in the future (at least 7 years). Its still a great deal to the borrower to have $100 million in financing but only have to pay back $70 million in principal (plus interest).
The Main @ Washington project, however, may have many sources of financing of which the $18 million from GNMO may only be one. But to extrapolate the size of the project as done earlier is incorrect (but totally logical for anyone not familiar with governmental math). I hope it is a $100 million project, however.