Rural Development Partners Deploys $20 Million NMTC to Back PackEx and Rebuild Marianna Economy

New updates have been reported about Rural Development Partners.

Rural Development Partners (RDP) has committed $20 million in New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocation to support PackEx USA’s aluminum-only bottling facility in Marianna, Florida, anchoring a $42 million multi-CDE financing that also includes River Gorge Capital and HEDC New Markets, with Truist as tax credit investor. The deal underscores RDP’s strategy of using its national NMTC platform to back capital-intensive rural manufacturing projects that create quality jobs in distressed communities recovering from economic shocks.

For RDP, the transaction advances its mission-driven portfolio and leverages its cumulative $906.7 million in NMTC awards since 2004 to catalyze industrial redevelopment in the Florida panhandle, an area hit hard by Hurricane Michael’s $38 billion in estimated damage and thousands of job losses. The PackEx project is redeveloping a 256,000-square-foot former bottling plant into a state-of-the-art sustainable packaging facility, with Phase 1 expected to add roughly 300 full-time jobs and later phases targeting more than 600 positions, positioning RDP as a key financial intermediary in restoring a long-term employment base and supporting the region’s shift from damaged timber and papermill industries toward more resilient, environmentally focused manufacturing.