The Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA) awarded EDGE the 2018 Distinguished Development Finance Local Agency Award. EDGE was recognized for tackling particularly complex and challenging financing concerns and the innovation of financing tools. The award will be presented at the 2018 National Development Finance Summit, November 7-9, 2018 in Dallas, Texas.
Created in 1982, CDFA is a national association of state and local economic development organizations that utilize tax incentives, bonds, loans, and other financing tools to stimulate economic growth. The CDFA Distinguished Development Finance Agency Award (Local Agency) is presented annually to an outstanding local development finance agency. In order to be eligible, the local agency must have achieved recent success in the way development finance programs are operated, managed, and administered. The goal of granting the award is to make the excellent work done by local development finance agencies in the economic development industry more widely known and to recognize the impact that these groups have on our national economy.
“This award reflects the foresight of our community’s governing bodies in creating EDGE and letting EDGE do what it does so well – providing opportunities for all people in Memphis and Shelby County to access economic prosperity,” said Jackson W. Moore, EDGE Board of Directors Member.
Created in 2011 to strengthen and streamline City and County economic development efforts, EDGE provides and coordinates public resources to drive economic development in Memphis and Shelby County. EDGE focuses on developing and fostering public/private partnerships to create jobs, grow the local economy, revitalize neighborhoods, attract investment, and encourage entrepreneurship. EDGE offers a variety of programs to generate jobs, revenue, and community investment. Approved EDGE projects are projected to create and retain more than 27,000 jobs with $4.5 billion of new investment, $627 million of contracts for MWBEs/LOSBs, and generate nearly $1.2 billion in local tax revenues for Memphis and Shelby County.