Once abandoned, the 45-acre Revolution Mill in northeast Greensboro is helping transform a formerly written-off neighborhood into a major driver of economic development. What started as 600,000 square feet of empty historic mill buildings has transformed into galleries, creative studios, office space, mixed-income residential units and public amenities like restaurants, cafes, greenway trails and community spaces. The project is spurring further investment, including the renovation of other historic mills creating additional affordable housing.
Northeast Greensboro is a community with a rich cultural and socioeconomic history. When the Cone Textile facilities closed in the 1980s, it experienced extensive disinvestment. Today, northeast Guilford Greensboro experiences a poverty rate of 27.9%. Revolution Mill is helping change that statistic.
The project would not be possible without help from the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC). The NMTC provides patient, flexible capital to businesses and communities left out of the economic mainstream, creating quality jobs, improved services and economic opportunity.
One of the most efficient community economic development tools for low-income communities ever enacted, the NMTC has leveraged an unprecedented level of investment to both rural and urban low-income communities, generating more than $110 billion in total capital investment through public-private partnerships and creating more than 1 million jobs. The NMTC has an outstanding track record of revitalizing some of the poorest, most disinvested communities in our country — and it has the potential to achieve even greater success.