Coastal Enterprises, Inc. Notes from the CEO

Ron Phillips' 2013 Annual Meeting Address

Sherrie Spaziano — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 13:36:16 GMT

The Fourth Leg of the Community Development Stool – Impact Investors
Aligning Capital with Social, Economic, Political
and Environmental Justice

Freeport, ME February 26th, 2013 - "We are encouraged that our industry, one made up of many thousands of CDCs/CDFIs across rural and urban America - and one in solidarity with brother and sister organizations internationally – has capacity, and is gaining even more strength, to create economic opportunity for disenfranchised regions and populations. We are handling billions in private and public capital for the good of the commons."

Click here to read Ron's speech in full.

Help Us Create Jobs

Sherrie Spaziano — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:36:27 GMT

Right now, Maine's unemployment rate stands at 7.3%, and reaches as high as 9.3% in Maine's most rural locations - double these percentages when accounting for underemployment. One of Coastal Enterprises' most fiercely protected values is to create jobs in Maine. Please donate now to support our ongoing success in creating work for Maine's people.

Since its beginning, CEI has made loans to more than 2,000 Maine businesses that, as a result, have created or retained 26,380 jobs - 1,045 of those in 2010 alone. Your contribution helps CEI assist others to become productive members of the workforce.

Support for small businesses changes lives. Masa Miyake has hired 38 employees in his 2 restaurants and on his organic farm. The new wharf at Pine Point supports 35 fishermen with access to the working waterfront. Employment Specialists of Maine's 260 employees help disabled individuals become independent, self-sufficient citizens in their communities. New partnerships and friendships are being formed. We can do more, and you can help.

Powered by passionate staff and smart business owners, we're working to create an environment of opportunity - for our kids to stay here and for new businesses to thrive here - a world where we can truly say, "Maine provides for the dreams of its citizens" by offering them a lifeline to economic empowerment through work.

Now more than ever, we must push forward to further secure our nonprofit mission: to help create economically and environmentally healthy communities in which all people, especially those with low incomes, can reach their full potential.

If you share our zeal for job creation, please make a tax deductible year-end donation to help us maintain our statewide impact.

Thank you and best wishes for the year to come.

Sincerely,

Ron Phillips

President
Coastal Enterprises, Inc.

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Ron Phillips’ acceptance speech (text) for $5.5MM NEXT award

Sherrie Spaziano — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:29:35 GMT

Minneapolis, MN -Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Thank you for selecting Coastal Enterprises, Inc. for this year’s NEXT Award. The staff and boards of CEI and CEI Capital Management, our New Markets Tax Credit subsidiary, are most grateful to the Wachovia Wells Fargo and MacArthur Foundation for their sponsorship of this important program.

We also want to recognize Terry Simonette and his team at NCB Capital Impact with whom we competed – and for whom we have the deepest admiration with their Green House model for aging populations - and the two other contenders – the Progress Fund in PA and Opportunity Fund in CA. We sincerely congratulate all of them tonight. We had a great time together in Chicago on Sept 7th when we made our final pitches. We shared camaraderie and stories, and wished each other the best. That time reflected exactly why we are here tonight: to tell our stories, and celebrate partnerships, innovation, and the positive impact our CDFI field is having on the lives of people and communities all over this country.

To read Ron's full speech, click here.

Keep capital flowing to firms in tough times. Now more than ever, Maine needs the private investment fostered by New Markets Tax Credits.

Sherrie Spaziano — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:12:48 GMT

WISCASSET - Maine has a proud heritage as a rural state that has built its economy on natural resources.

Today, the state continues this tradition and has grown whole new industries from this base. These businesses require capital to expand, evolve and keep pace with market demand.

The New Markets Tax Credit Program has proven to be an important part of that capital flow, and it has allowed Maine to compete in the global economy and to create jobs and opportunities here at home. We need to renew this vital program now more than ever.

Implemented in 2001, the New Markets Tax Credit is a cost-effective way to drive investment in communities with high rates of poverty and unemployment.

The program uses federal tax credits equaling 39 percent of the investment over a seven-year period in exchange for capital to spur economic and community revitalization.

Even in light of the current economic climate, the demand for credits continues to rise, particularly in Maine. The extension of this crucial program, which is currently under consideration by Congress, is integral to our state's economic vitality.

New Markets Tax Credit investments of $15.5 billion have generated a total of $50 billion in capital that has been invested in some of the nation's most underserved communities. Thus far, on average, the NMTC program has generated $12 of private investment for every $1 of federal investment.

In Maine, the program has been equally successful. The state stands fourth in the nation in New Markets Tax Credit funding on a per capita basis.

To date, $180 million in New Markets Tax Credit investments nationwide have spurred nearly $480 million in private investment, largely focusing on rural community economic development.

The program provides much-needed financing for starved small and medium-sized businesses in Maine's hard-hit communities, including traditionally forestry-dependent rural areas such as Millinocket, Grand Lake Stream, Presque Isle and Bangor.

More than 1,500 jobs have been directly preserved or created in Maine through New Markets Tax Credit investments. They indirectly support tens of thousands of additional jobs in the fishing, paper and wood industries, recreational tourism, and related manufacturing, transportation and service sectors.

Nearly 2 million acres of timberland has been committed to sustainable forestry practices, and retained as working forests for traditional mill-supply purposes and additional economic development in recreational tourism and other industries.

Projects include a small-business and affordable housing project in Grand Lake Stream, a community forest, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, and most recently, a first round of funding for the Kestrel Aircraft Manufacturing facility on the closed Brunswick Naval Air Station.

Most importantly, each investment meets the triple bottom-line measures for economic progress, social equity and environmental sustainability.

As Maine has built on the success of the program, investors from outside the state have been attracted to projects here. This is private capital, much of it from "away," which otherwise would not have come to Maine. These investments have supported projects crucial to our state's economic growth.

Maine's own Sen. Olympia Snowe has been a pivotal and vital supporter of this program. She and Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia have sponsored the program legislation since the beginning, including the current extension bill under consideration.

It is Sen. Snowe's vision, with the support of Maine businesses, which has led to the amazing success of the New Markets Tax Credit Program in the state.

Without this leadership, the great story of the New Markets Tax Credit as a successful driver for private capital investment in Maine would not exist.

In fact, according to a Government Accountability Office report, 88 percent of investors surveyed would not have made the investment in these communities without the credits.

We strongly urge a swift vote on the extension of the New Markets Tax Credit Program in Congress to continue the uninterrupted flow of capital investments to the state to help local businesses, create jobs and transform underserved communities in one of the toughest financial climates we have ever seen.

A Catch Shares Program to Help Communities and Fishermen

Sherrie Spaziano — Tue, 03 May 2011 11:48:39 GMT

By Ron Phillips, Special to the BDN

While members of Congress have spent the past several years trying to patch and repair our nation’s struggling economy, a small and diverse group of experts from across North America joined forces to deliver a plan and set of recommendations that we think will return long-term prosperity to our coastal communities and put our boats back in the water.

I was pleased to join the collection of commercial fishermen, academics, economists and policy experts on the National Panel on the Community Dimensions of Fisheries Catch Share Programs, the first national, bipartisan panel ever formed to tackle the issue of how regions like ours can benefit from a “catch share” model of fisheries management.

Catch shares are a means of managing fisheries by allocating a specific portion of the total allowable catch of a fish stock to individuals, cooperatives, communities or other entities. While the topic is often somewhat controversial, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration is beginning to implement its Catch Share Policy, and it’s absolutely crucial that fishing towns in Maine undefined and those who represent them undefined demand that our communities and jobs be a top priority.

The Port Clyde Fishermen’s Co-op is just one example of how investing in a community can help sustain Maine’s commercial fisheries. The co-op secured a $340,000 grant from the Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program to help finance a new wharf that increases the capacity of the facility. It provides deep-water access, berthing and a landing point for the last remaining active groundfishing fleet east of Portland.

There are nine groundfishing boats that land 1½ million pounds of shrimp and fish each year. The wharf also provides important access to fuel, bait and parking. This is the type of collaborative that could be allocated catch shares.

Rob Snyder, executive vice president of the Island Institute, agrees with the recommendations of the report, “Maine’s 70 remaining groundfish boats are working hard to retain access to the fish off of our coast. The recommendations in this report build on a history of local innovation and introduce new tools that can equitably address these access issues.”

We know that many of our fishermen have had to pull their boats due to regulations that have limited their days at sea. Our farmed salmon industry disappeared to Canada. Lobstermen are still fishing, but find their waterfront access is becoming more limited by developers. Landings in Maine have moved to the south, as the Gloucester, Mass., market becomes more fully developed. Maine needs more jobs focused in this critical area of its heritage.

Done right, catch shares can actually enhance economic development in our communities, tying more boats to the dock while also boosting the resilience of our region’s fisheries. It begins with NOAA supporting and encouraging Community Fishing Associations, which would provide affordable, local industry access to fisheries and opportunities for qualified new fishermen.

It’s also crucial that fish allocations be traded, tracked and reported in a transparent and accessible manner, and that NOAA grant initial allocations of fish quotas to communities. In all, the panel created 16 recommendations for NOAA that we believe will create jobs and long-term prosperity for our nation’s fishing towns, big and small. Full copies of the report as well as an executive summary can be found at the Panel’s website www.ecotrust.org/catchshares.

The National Panel has recommended that NOAA develop a dedicated loan program to assist communities and new entrants in the purchase of catch shares, and to engage financial intermediaries in support of capacity building, technical assistance and investment. Coastal Enterprises Inc. will continue to deepen its role in this area, advocating for the policies and funding that will strengthen fishing communities and jobs. I encourage all Mainers to call and write their local leaders and members of Congress, and tell them that it’s time for a catch shares program that puts our communities first.

Ron Phillips' Annual Meeting 2011 Remarks

Sherrie Spaziano — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:21:19 GMT

This morning, we’re pleased to welcome you to the 33rd anniversary annual meeting of Coastal Enterprises. We appreciate your taking time out of your busy schedules to join us. Thank you, Sue Inches, Jackie Wardell and Janet McCaa, as well as the rest of the board – including our new board members – and 85 staff for your diligent work and commitment to CEI. I also want to thank our sponsors for supporting this breakfast.

Our 2010 Annual Report spells out in detail what we’ve accomplished this year and includes a summary of our audited financial statements. I want to thank Catherine Breer of Annie Catherine Designs, and Grace Cleaves, CEI’s Marketing Director, for their creative and excellent work on our marketing materials and annual report.

I would also like to thank Ted Fishman for agreeing to be our speaker. People wonder why we selected someone to speak on the topic of aging…well, it’s something we all have in common…and as one of my staff noted, I’ve been at CEI longer than Egypt’s ex-president has been in power. Is there a message in that? Probably not, actually, because the good news at CEI is that the CEO is only one of the factors in our overall governance and success. So again, I want to thank all the board, sub-boards, advisory boards, staff…some 120 individuals in all….for their dedication to all that we think, talk about and do here at CEI, a community development and financial institution.

For those of you who are new to CEI, our mission is to create economically and environmentally healthy communities in which all people, especially those with low incomes, can reach their full potential. We apply this mission by striving to achieve an economic, social and environmental return on each investment: a practice, often referred to as Triple Bottom Line investing, that must serve as the imperative of global development if those at the margins of society are to gain a full life, and if the environment is to be stewarded with the respect the creation deserves.

We pursue that mission by providing financing and technical support to micro, small and medium- sized businesses, as well as natural resource ventures, community facilities such as child care, and affordable housing. While our primary market is Maine, in the last few years under the New Markets Tax Credit program, we have developed a national rural “footprint” with project financing in the northeast in partnership with other like-minded entities, such as the Northern Forest Center in Concord, NH and the Western Mass Enterprise Fund, and as far away as South Carolina, Louisiana, Oregon, and Hawaii.

We mobilize capital from both private and public sources to reinvest in community. That’s our history and our strength. If you look at the charts in our annual report you’ll see how diverse our revenue base is, how our capital spreads to many parts of Maine and its economy, and the multiple sources of funding and financing we arrange to help these projects.

We have a specialized focus on value-added fish, farm and forest industries; working waterfront preservation finance; renewable energy development; workforce development; support for refugees/new immigrants; Individual Development Accounts; a major small business counseling program; and one of the larger foreclosure mitigation counseling programs in Maine. All of these activities are geared toward building sustainable, livable and healthy communities.

Business counseling is a very important part of CEI’s model for economic development. It’s not just money, but information that can help a job-creating or self-employed venture meet its goals. We currently have some 14 professionals on the staff serving Maine, whether through the Women’s Business Center, or the SBDC, recently expanded to include service in the Bangor and northern region.

CEI’s range of financing capability and diversity of products is remarkable. Our deals range from under $35,000 to as much as $1 million in venture capital – more in affordable housing projects – and on an annual basis we’re financing 50-60 projects, totaling as much as $30 million in direct and leveraged capital. The Northern Heritage Development Fund, for example, based in Bangor, is a $10mm fund targeted to projects in the seven “rim” counties of western, northern and downeast Maine. Under the New Markets Tax Credit program operated by CEI Capital Management, we’ve provided over $400 million in financing to 42 projects throughout Maine, rural New England and nationally – over $220 million to 14 projects, averaging about $10 million, in Maine alone. We’re hopeful that financing of Educare in Waterville, a $12mm facility for prenatal and early child care development for families in the area, will be the beneficiary of this very diverse, albeit complex, credit program.

Our policy team remains very active. We continue to advocate both in Washington DC and Augusta for policies conducive to our field, improvements in the Community Reinvestment Act, which draws more banking resources to projects we finance, and are pleased that Senate president Kevin Raye and Senator Chris Rector, a co-chair of the Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development, are co-sponsoring a state tax credit to accompany the federal NMTC. We are supporting a blue ribbon housing commission before the legislature this year to get an accurate picture of housing needs in the state, and are urging legislation that would foster institutional buying of local foods grown and processed in Maine. We are also maintaining an active concern in federal and state consumer financial protection and progress in Washington on fair, sound and responsible lending practices.

Over the past few years CEI has sought to commit resources to development of Maine’s agriculture and renewable energy systems. Maine currently has an 80% dependency on food imports – a similar rate to its dependence on current energy sources – however, has the ability to grow, process and market its own food, or generate its own power on small as well as large-scale projects, and CEI is a resource to help in the development of more self-reliant food and energy systems. On Vinalhaven, for example, we’re hoping to install ETS units for 28 units of preservation housing and take advantage of off-peak rates from the electricity generated by the three wind turbines on the island – a project sponsored by the Island Institute with whom CEI partners in many areas.
CEI has evolved into a complex arrangement of capital flows and subsidiaries, each with specialized functions and purposes – venture capital, tax credits, housing, small business. In each of these areas we work closely with the Maine financial community and employment training deliverers, helping to fill the capital gaps and targeting jobs for lower-income individuals and families. Bankers serve on our board and subsidiary and advisory boards, and are essential to our work. We believe we’re essential to theirs as well.

Policies for a Challenged Environment

Sherrie Spaziano — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:10:36 GMT

Currently, the CEI staff and board are considering which mission-related state policy initiatives to press forward in the upcoming legislative session.

Two weeks ago, we published our “Policy Directions for Maine” document, which was mailed/emailed to all the gubernatorial and legislative candidates. It was a comprehensive report that was based on CEI’s experience as a community economic development practitioner for nearly 35 years.

But we’re practical. We know that all initiatives will not be embraced or enacted. We need to decide which few are important to pursue vis-à-vis the realities of the current budget climate. Understanding that a good offense is a better defense, do we make our stand on early childhood education? Natural resources development? Job creation? Do we push forward with a program to educate our leaders about the detailed advantages of tax credits for business and individual taxpayers for investments in their communities?

Please take a look at our policy document - the first 2 pages of which outline our summary recommendations - and give us feedback about your own top 3.

Thanks, Ron