Championing Our Region’s High-Quality Charter Schools

Golden Door Charter School is the first TRF borrower to benefit from JPMorgan Chase's $50 million New Markets Tax Credit Charter School Fund, designated to support the growth of promising charter schools. Chase specifically granted $7.5 million to TRF to use as permanent equity to fund charter school facility projects.  

Leveraging these unique funds, TRF provided a $5.2 million loan to Golden Door in December 2010.  The financing allows Golden Door to move into a larger facility with its own gymnasium/auditorium and renovate the building to include specialized classrooms for art, computers and music, greatly expanded administrative areas, and more appropriate spaces for special education, health, and social work services.  The occupancy costs associated with the new building will be less than that of Golden Door’s prior facility, allowing the school to dedicate more of its budget to the academic program.

.Golden Door was one of the first charter schools in New Jersey, founded in 1998. The school’s philosophy is that every child can succeed, given the right opportunities. Golden Door emphasizes classical liberal arts such as foreign language, art and music, as well as student awareness of healthy living. The School also employs a media specialist to teach classes on the newest technologies. Golden Door serves 500 students in grades K-8 and has small class sizes with a student/teacher ratio of 13:1.

Thanks to the Chase fund, TRF can offer charter schools a structured loan product. Senior leverage and NMTC equity are provided by Chase, subordinated leverage is provided by TRF. The project was also supported with U.S. Department of Education credit enhancement. Golden Door’s funding is an example of complimentary public and private resources combining to provide tremendous support for high-performing charter schools confronting the difficult lending market.