April 28, 2022 (Arlington, VA) – Today, Capital Impact Partners announced the inaugural class of its Housing Accelerator Fellowship (HAF) program. The group consists of 15 of the region’s emerging real estate developers.
The goals of this new program, funded by a grant of more than $5 million from the Amazon Housing Equity Fund, include increasing the number of community-rooted real estate developers and helping to grow the affordable housing stock in this region.
The Amazon Housing Equity Fund is the company’s more than $2 billion commitment to preserve and create affordable housing in Amazon’s hometown communities — the Arlington, Virginia region; the Puget Sound region of Washington state; and Nashville, Tennessee.
These first 15 Fellows are experienced real estate developers who have reached a key point in their careers where additional training, mentorship, and potential access to funding can accelerate existing projects and help them to become more established in the field.
“This fellowship is a win-win for the D.C. metro area,” said Ellis Carr, president and CEO of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance. “We’re able to help these developers grow their businesses with invaluable training and mentorship, as well as potential access to funding toward their projects. And those projects will ultimately provide more affordable housing in a region that needs it.”
The 15 Developers
The first cohort features developers who are already creating and preserving affordable homes in the metropolitan D.C., Maryland and Virginia region:
- Christopher Agorsor, New World Developers
- Alexsis Blakely, Rosewood Strategies LLC
- Odis Bledsoe, Home Answers Construction & Development
- Tremayne Cobb, TOC Enterprises, LLC
- Howard Ervin, Parallax Development Group, LLC
- Dabrielle Goodwin, Eluvial Enterprise Inc.
- Forest Hayes, Miller Beach Development LLC
- Thomas Houston, Medici Road
- Ayesha Johnson, A-Peace, LLC
- Raymond Nix, Nix Development Company, LLC
- Chi Perrus, Paragon Construction Group, Inc.
- Valerie Sanderlin, FocusWorks LLC
- Jason Saunders, BHI Construction and Real Estate Development
- Ronette Slamin, Embolden Real Estate, LLC
- Ernest Williams III, Wiltrust Group LLC
“The level of talent and the desire to support affordable housing initiatives that we have seen through this program so far are energizing,” said Catherine Buell, director of the Amazon Housing Equity Fund. “Bringing more voices, ideas and perspectives into the conversation around community building is how we are going to make the most meaningful and lasting change to affordable housing.”
Program Highlights
Capital Impact Partners’ Housing Accelerator Fellowship is a free, two-year, part-time professional development and career advancement program. It provides:
- Real estate training with a focus on affordable housing production in the D.C. metropolitan area
- Small group mentorship
- Access to grant capital for pre-development expenses such as architectural and engineering costs; permitting, survey and site-planning fees; and market and feasibility studies. These funds are often the most difficult and most expensive to raise for developers.
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About Capital Impact Partners
Capital Impact Partners, part of the Momentus Capital branded family of organizations, is transforming how capital and investments flow into communities to provide people with access to the capital and opportunities they deserve. As one of the nation’s leading mission-driven Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), we help build strong communities and create generational wealth by deploying mission-driven financing, capacity-building programs, and impact investing opportunities.
Capital Impact Partners offers flexible financing for catalytic mission-aligned projects in four primary sectors: increasing access to health care, education, affordable housing, and healthy food.
In addition, we manage several multi-year initiatives in key regions to support emerging developers, small business owners, cooperatives, and community health enterprises through training, professional networks, access to experts and mentors, and pathways to grants and loan capital.
Capital Impact Partners has disbursed more than $3 billion since 1982 to create access to critical social services, grow entrepreneurs, and create quality jobs. Capital Impact Partners’ leadership in delivering financial and social impact has resulted in the organization being rated by S&P Global and Fitch Ratings and recognized by Aeris for its performance.
The Momentus Capital branded family of organizations refers to the combined operations of Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance, as well as their affiliates, Momentus Direct Capital and Momentus Securities (an SEC-registered broker-dealer, MSRB-registered, FINRA/SIPC member). While each organization under the Momentus Capital brand still operates as a separate entity, their clients will now have access to more resources and products.
With headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, and San Diego, California, Momentus Capital operates nationally with a focus on larger urban areas and cities in Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Texas, and the Washington D.C. metro area.
Learn more at capitalimpact.org and momentuscap.org.
