Capital Impact’s Detroit News: New Alliance | Detroit Video Series | Equitable Development Initiative | Our Continued Impact

From a global pandemic to racial injustices across the country, this is a moment for communities and organizations to continue working together to expand opportunity for our neighbors. As a mission-driven organization focused on building equity and power for our communities, it is times like these that reaffirm our resolve and commitment to stand against racism in all its forms and work with neighbors to create a reality in which everyone can thrive.

We would like to share with you some of the programs we have been working on across Detroit.

Capital Impact Partners and CDC Small Business Finance – the nation’s leading mission-based small business lender – are excited to announce a new alliance that will focus on developing and implementing high-touch, scalable solutions that support economic empowerment and equitable wealth creation. Detroit will serve as one of the three place-based pilot locations where cross-organizational teams will actively engage with community members to understand regional barriers to opportunity and work together to create tools, programs, and services that are strategically customized to address those high-priority issues.

► Read our full press release for details

Particularly in moments like this, the vital nature of partnerships becomes clear. Working together, we can bridge the gaps that community members experience in order to foster inclusive, sustainable, and equitable futures.

That connectedness is certainly true of our partners in Detroit. Our Detroit Partnerships video series has been a great way for us to acknowledge the partnerships that have made our work possible. Here, you can see the final videos in the series, featuring The Kresge Foundation’s Managing Director of the Social Investment Practice Aaron Seybert; JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Vice President & Detroit Program Officer September Hargrove; and New Paradigm for Education’s CEO Ralph Bland.

►Watch the entire Detroit Partnerships series including the City of Detroit’s Donald Rencher, Detroit Food Policy Council’s Winona Bynum, and Stay Midtown participant Consuelo Jackson

Detroit Equitable Development Initiative

In June, we wrapped up the third cohort of our Detroit Equitable Development Initiative, in which we trained and mentored 20 real estate developers of color through online learning sessions, shifting from in-person sessions as a result of COVID-19. Participants presented their final group projects virtually to an audience and panel of key real estate and business professionals. Congratulations to all of our 2020 program participants!

The application for our fourth cohort will be live in the fall. If developers of color are interested in learning more, visit our Equitable Development Initiative webpage.

2020 Detroit EDI Participants

Diversity in Development – Detroit Loan Fund

Additionally, Capital Impact, with support from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Fund, launched the $12.5 million Diversity in Development – Detroit Loan Fund in an effort to increase support for real estate developers of color leading multifamily and mixed-use projects throughout the city. The fund provides a new tool to increase Capital Impact’s long-time commitment to equitable development and inclusive growth in Detroit, by deploying low-cost and flexible construction financing to developers of color who live in and around Detroit — with a preference given to graduates of Capital Impact’s Equitable Development Initiative.

Our goal is to create pathways of success for those developers who have not been able to enter the real estate industry due to lack of capital, equity, and experience as a result of structural racism and disinvestment. In doing so, we can help ensure Detroit’s developers are more representative of the city’s residents.

►Learn more about this fund

Women are the backbone of communities and we are proud to partner with female leaders who are building power for their communities. In Detroit, Sue Mosey has been a long-standing champion of community development and economic mobility for city residents. In a story from our annual report, read how Sue has worked to make Detroit’s Midtown district a vibrant, inclusive place to live and work.

►Read Sue’s story

The Murray

The Murray – Hubbard Farms is a mixed-income, multifamily project in Southwest Detroit. These long-abandoned row homes will undergo a total renovation to become 12 units of modern, efficient housing across 16,404 square feet, including three units that will be offered as affordable housing at 60 percent of the Area Median Income. The $4.57 million project is slated for completion in mid-2021.

Capital Impact provided $2.2 million in loans – in part through our Detroit Neighborhoods Fund – to support the rehab of this historic landmark in the Hubbard Farms Historic District. It is Capital Impact’s first multifamily project in the southwest neighborhood, on which we are proud to support a Black-owned development company to lead, W. Emery Matthews’ Real Estate Interests LLC.

Crain’s Detroit had the exclusive on the launch of our Diversity in Development – Detroit Loan Fund. Read more!

Capital Impact Partners-CDC Small Business Finance Alliance

• dBusiness – Detroit to Pilot New Program to Empower Equitable Community Growth
• Sustainable Brands – New Lending Industry Alliance to Bolster Underserved Communities
• Impact Alpha – Can real estate financing + small business lending = equitable community growth?

Groundbreaking of The Murray-Hubbard Farms

• The Detroit News – Detroit Project to Turn Empty Eyesore Into Apartment Homes
• modelD – Black-Owned Firm Leads Redevelopment of Historic Rowhomes in Hubbard Farms
• dbusiness – Historic Lofts Coming to Hubbard Farms Neighborhood in Detroit’s Mexicantown

As we continue to adjust to the ever-changing challenges of COVID-19, we wanted to remind you to please engage us on any concerns, questions or ideas connected to building equity and power for our communities. We will continue to adapt with you, our borrowers and partners, and your operational changes as we seek to support the communities we are privileged to serve.

Please visit here and here for a list of individuals you can contact for support. Stay safe and healthy!