Bronx Hip Hop Museum Gets $8.5M Financing From N.J. Community Capital

What’s luv got to do (got to do) with it? Not much, but historic tax credits do.

Two developers making moves in the birthplace of hip-hop are L+M Development Partners and Type A Projects, which have just moved one step closer to completing Bronx Point, their $349 million, 530,000-square-foot mixed-use development at 575 Exterior Street in the South Bronx.

At the base of the project is The Hip Hop Museum, which just received a “historic” $8.5 million new markets tax credit (NMTC) allocation from nonprofit community development financial institution New Jersey Community Capital (NJCC) to fund “interior fit-outs” and complete the museum’s construction, according to NJCC.

“This is a prime example of an investment that is going to create an enriched opportunity for people to partake and celebrate a global genre such as hip-hop,” NJCC CEO Bernel Hall told Commercial Observer. “It’s going to create jobs and a local economic echo impact when people shop at the stores and vendors that are local to the museum.”

NJCC facilitated the NMTC allocation, which is an equity vehicle that incentivizes community development and economic growth through the use of tax credits that “attract private investments to distressed communities,” according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Monge Capital and Dudley Ventures helped to facilitate NJCC’s investment into the museum, which will honor the borough’s history of hip-hop and open to the public during the summer of 2026, NJCC said.

“If you think about the origin of hip-hop, [these artists] were just trying to find something positive to do when the Bronx was at a crossroads from a disparaged economic standpoint,” Hall said. “Now, 50 or so years later, you see an opportunity for what they created out of despair to be celebrated globally.”

While Bronx Point will be anchored by the museum, the first phase of L+M and Type A’s development along the Harlem River, which opened in 2023, also features 542 permanently affordable housing units, an educational space for kids operated by BronxWorks, and several retail sites, according to L+M’s website.

But the project don’t stop. The rest of the Bronx Point development will include a 2.8-acre park and 400 more apartments, with 100 affordable co-ops and 300 low- and middle-income rentals, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

“We’ve received tremendous support as NYC Council’s designated cultural anchor, from so many of our partners,” Rocky Bucano, founder and executive director of the Hip Hop Museum, said during a 2023 ribbon cutting for phase one of Bronx Point.

“And now we’re officially welcoming members of the community into brand-new, permanently affordable housing here in the South Bronx,” Bucano added. “The Hip Hop Museum is proud to be a part of the cultural growth and economic development that Bronx Point represents for the entire borough.”

Spokespeople for L+M, Type A and the Hip Hop Museum did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.

This isn’t NJCC’s first time investing in the arts. Just last year, the company completed a large tax credit investment into the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s educational campus in Newark, N.J., Hall said.

“We believe that a lot of economic development comes from these lower-income communities and the creativity of their citizens,” Hall said. “And so we believe, by facilitating the education and the buildout of these facilities, [we’re] giving that community [the] ability to not only have a creative outlet, but also to create economic prosperity that stays home once it comes about.”

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.