center has been cited by various academic and urban assistance groups as a textbook example of reintroducing supermarkets into inner-city areas, and the site has been visited by a variety of other community development groups from cities throughout the United States. In contrast to a small Fashion Institute producing custom clothing and home furnishings (NCC's smallest business venture), NCC developed a $3 million, factory facility on the site of a former Borden's milk processing plant. The "New Community Technologies" factory was dedicated to the construction of pre-fabricated housing and school building components for sale to local housing developers and school boards, and opened in 2001 (after limited production commenced in an adjacent storage facility in 1999). Job training In 1993, New Community expanded into vocational training, starting various career classes for low-income residents. The initial classes centered on career fields that New Community was already familiar with, e.g. health care and food service; however, the curriculum was later expanded. In 1999, NCC centralized most of these classes within a new $2.4 million, Workforce Development Center, and increased its cooperation with State and local welfare-to-work initiatives. One training program remained at a special facility, a cooperative venture with the Ford Motor Company and a local Ford dealership that trains low-income urban residents to assume careers as professional auto mechanics. That program was started in 1996 at a garage equipped with classrooms, tools, and modern auto diagnostic equipment. Financial services By 1998, New Community further expanded its presence in the financial services field (it opened a credit union for residents, employees and families otherwise served by NCC in 1985). It began two new programs, the first offering loans for the start-up or expansion of small businesses that create jobs for Newark area residents. The second venture, called Garden State Affordable Housing, matched investors interested in federal low-income housing tax credits with developers of low-income housing throughout the State of New Jersey, operating as an investment pool. This mechanism provides much-needed financing for the development of affordable rental housing. Education New Community had become involved in elementary grade level education in the mid-1980s, through a cooperative relationship with a local Roman Catholic parish school. In the late 1990s, NCC took advantage of New Jersey State legislation allowing the formation of private charter schools that operate with funding from the local school board. In 1999, NCC opened its New Horizons Charter School for 500