By SCBIZ Staff

COLUMBIA -- Branch Banking and Trust Corp. and the S.C. Department of Commerce announced a new community economic development support corporation, the S.C. Community Development Intermediary. The SC-CDI was chartered earlier this year and will begin operation immediately. It will support growth, enhance development and increase the capacity of community development corporations.

Community development corporations are designed to benefit low- and moderate-income residents within South Carolina by expanding homeownership and economic opportunity while enhancing quality of life.

“The time for providing an effective community economic development infrastructure for low- and moderate-income communities is long overdue, said Chester Williams, BB&T, executive vice president and director of CRA/Community Development. “The intermediary will be extremely effective in using funding, financing and capacity-building tools to get community development projects on the ground through the qualified CDCs in the state. This program will work diligently to bring the best CDC’s on line rapidly. This will be a no-nonsense, best practices organization designed for one purpose and that is to get needed housing and commercial development on the ground in short order.”

The SC-CDI is a public-private partnership operating in coordination with BB&T, the Department of Commerce and additional financial institutions. The intermediary will provide capacity building, technical assistance and financing through member financial institutions for community development projects throughout the state.

The SC-CDI will be based in Gaffney, under the direction of Camilla Moore. Moore is a former director of Fulton County Housing in Atlanta.

BB&T will be the primary lending institution during the initial startup, offering construction and permanent loans, Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta grant access, as well as equity capital for tax credit qualified projects. As the SC-CDI develops and grows, BB&T and the state Department of Commerce will encourage other financial institutions to participate.