Downtown
Children’s Center Offers Childcare to Businesses and Residents
By Zack M. Boyers
The State of Missouri has multiple tax credit programs to provide
incentives for investments and charitable contributions to approved
projects. This regular column features examples of how the various
Missouri state tax credit programs benefit the State, generally,
and St. Louis in particular.
The best downtown neighborhoods in the country are characterized
by a rich level of vibrancy, choices of things to do and the diversity
of the streetscape. Downtown St. Louis has for too long suffered
the constrained image of a Central Business District and a place
for spectator sports, with little else to offer the resident, pedestrian
or visitor. Much of that is changing now as new residential and
office lofts and other major developments are becoming a reality
at a clip not witnessed in decades. In the center of much that is
going on— across the street from the new Rudman on the Park and
the McGowan lofts, just down the street from the Merchandise Mart
apartment building, the Grace Lofts, Paristyle Lofts and Terra Cotta
Lofts, all of which are being developed at this moment—, there are
children being taught and cared for at the Downtown Children’s Center
(DCC), as they have for more than 20 years.
Even throughout downtown’s sleepiest period, one persistent sign
that our downtown could in fact be a great neighborhood like others
around the country has been the children that walk in and around
the Washington Avenue Loft District as pupils of the DCC. Thousands
of boys and girls, hand-in-hand, have walked along those sidewalks
over the past 21 years, and they have continually illustrated that
downtown could be a neighborhood for all types at all times. Now,
these children and the people that manage the DCC are involved deeply
in the rebirth and improvement of a once great area.
Downtown Children’s Center is a nationally accredited childcare
center for infants and toddlers, pre-school and kindergarten students.
After two decades of commitment as an amenity for downtown businesses
and residents alike, DCC is launching a critically important $1,200,000
capital campaign. The campaign, which will be successful with the
help of the State of Missouri’s tax credit program in concert with
the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations, is
for the following:
- Building
Renovation to include a new entrance on the rejuvenated
Washington Avenue, interior renovation throughout, a new
infant and toddler classroom, and the renovation of the
pre-school and kindergarten rooms.
- Scholarship
endowment, to move DCC closer to its goal of providing
high-quality daycare and early education to children regardless
of ability to pay.
-
Faculty and Curriculum Development, including teacher
training in multicultural education and the Reggio Emelia
approach, the expansion of the summer camp for children
6-12 years old, and an expanded tuition reimbursement
program for teachers seeking degrees in higher education.
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In order
to help the DCC meet its goals, the State of Missouri has allocated
$250,000 of Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP) tax credits
to leverage significant tax deductible contributions from eligible
businesses. NAP credits are a 50% credit; for every $1.00 a donor
gives, it receives a $.50 state tax credit. That credit can be
applied against the donor’s state tax liability as payment. Furthermore,
the entirety of the donation is deductible on a federal tax return.
Clearly, NAP credits allow a donor to give far more than it otherwise
might, and they allow an eligible not-for-profit to raise the
funds necessary to succeed in its efforts. Depending on the donor’s
tax bracket, its net cost for a donation if receiving these credits
in return is a fraction of the total amount given.
The Neighborhood Assistance Program is designed to encourage businesses
to support programs that foster physical revitalization, economic
development, education in Missouri and more. Eligible donors are
business firms including corporations, banks and other financial
institutions, partnerships and their individual partners, Limited
Liability Companies and their individual members, S Corporations
and their individual shareholders and private foundations subject
to Missouri income tax. NAP credits are not transferable, which
means they cannot be sold once received by a donor; the donor
will need to use them itself. Notably, a donor can use these credits
on its tax return in the donation year and can apply any unused
credit to the returns of the next five tax years.
DCC recently
solidified its place as a fixture in downtown St. Louis by purchasing
its space on the first floor of the Lucas Lofts building at 13th
Street and Washington Avenue in 2000. But Executive Director Joan
Gerard has been building DCC to be an active neighborhood proponent
since its inception. Gerard and DCC have been instrumental and
inspiring in improving, beautifying and maintaining the adjacent
Lucas Park, where children play, residents stroll and nearby employees
picnic for lunch. She has nurtured an environment inviting to
parents who stop by for lunch with their children or read the
class a story in the middle of their workdays. And she has recognized
the pressures and changing times in the business world by establishing
a very popular and effective Back-up Care program. This program,
for which employers annually register, is designed to care for
children through the age of 12 when their usual caretakers are
unable to do so for reasons like snow days, holidays or illness.
With the help of the Neighborhood Assistance Program tax credits,
the leadership of Joan Gerard, a dedicated staff and an active
Board of Directors, Downtown Children’s Center is eager to continue
its role as a significant player in a new downtown St. Louis for
years to come. For two decades, Gerard and her teachers watched
buildings and streets grow increasingly empty, but the children
of DCC dotted the streetscape and brought to it hope and spirit.
As downtown continues its exciting rebirth, DCC will eagerly participate
as an asset to residents and businesses, alike. Most of all, everyone
who walks the newly bustling streets of the Washington Avenue
Loft District will be able to enjoy the diversity of the streetscape
that the children of DCC will help to create.
Zackary M. Boyers, vice president, Firstar Community Development
Corporation
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