Tackling critical community development with IFF.

Citi Community Development has committed $200,000 for IFF, a leading Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) based in Chicago, to develop a scalable framework for designing, developing and financing community health centers. That groundwork is the first step in IFF's "Health Centers for Healthy Communities" initiative, which aims to develop or expand a minimum of 10 community-based health care clinics in the Midwest.

IFF, which has extensive experience in financing more than 65 community health care clinics, expects to be ready by the end of this year to implement the platform and leverage at least $75 million in private sector capital for the development of nonprofit clinics in Chicago and across IFF's five-state service area of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin.

IFF is the leading nonprofit facilities lender in the United States and has closed more than 850 loans totaling more than $310 million and representing project costs totaling nearly $1 billion. These projects have created more than 41,000 jobs.

"There is a strong consensus that investing in community health centers is a cost-effective means of delivering high-quality health care to underserved communities," said Joe Neri, CEO of IFF. "But financing, developing and executing on these projects takes time, technical knowledge, and flexible, low-cost debt alternatives. Through this partnership with Citi, IFF will develop a turnkey solution for the design, development and financing of community health centers. Our goal will be speed and simplicity--and to develop a model that will prove transformative for communities across the Midwest and nation."

For her part, Laura Sparks, Director of Development Finance Initiatives for Citi Community Development, said, "This goes beyond creating new capacity for low-cost, high-quality health care. It also creates job opportunities, incorporates 'green' construction and spurs other community development projects as these centers stimulate their local economies."