Connecticut Light & Power is purchasing more than $15 million in state tax credits – the most the utility has invested ever — to benefit more than a dozen nonprofit social support and housing development organizations.
The state Commission on Culture and Tourism issues credits on behalf of qualified organizations that request them.
In turn, the commission acts as a clearinghouse to sell the credits to for-profit companies, such as CL&P, to generate cash the nonprofits use to finance their various initiatives.
In addition to supporting these initiatives, tax-credit buyers use them for a dollar-for-dollar reduction of their state tax liabilities.
Among beneficiaries of CL&P’s 2010 tax-credit purchase is the $2.7 million CIL Development of Kensington Inc. will use to transform the former Sherwood Tool Factory in Berlin’s Kensington into condominiums and townhomes on the former brownfield site.
Another $2.7 million in credits finances Common Ground’s recent renovation of downtown Hartford’s Hollander Foundation Center at 410 Asylum St. that has 70 apartments.
Another $10 million will go towards transforming a blighted section of Stamford’s South End into the 4,000-unit Harbor Point residential development.
In 2009, CL&P bought more than $6.6 million in tax credits from the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority for housing development. The utility says it has contributed more than $47 million to state housing programs since 2002.
CL&P is a unit of Hartford-based Northeast Utilities Inc.
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