$415,000 in Grants Awarded to 16 Detroit Projects Led By Real Estate Developers of Color.

Capital Impact Partners has awarded $415,000 in grants to 16 real estate projects led by developers of color in the Detroit area.  The awards were made possible with funding from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.

Those 16 projects are being led by 19 alumni of the Equitable Development Initiative. This Capital Impact Partners program helps local real estate developers of color take a leadership role in shaping Detroit’s redevelopment landscape — including more affordable housing and space for small businesses — so that projects that affect the local community are led by people who are actually from the community.  

The What:

• 19 graduates of the Equitable Development Initiative, all of them developers of color, will receive a combined $415,000 in grants for 16 important projects.
• The projects are expected to rehabilitate or develop more than 293,000 square feet of new and rehabbed space; 262 residential units, including the creation of 93 units at or below 80 percent of the area median income; and 29 commercial units throughout Detroit and Highland Park.
  
• The awards, ranging from $10,000 to $75,000, are designed to provide crucial  early-stage capital — often some of the hardest capital for developers to come by — to help EDI alumni move their projects forward.
  
• Since 2021, we have delivered a total of $546,500 in grants awarded to developers of color in Detroit. 
  
• These grants help the developers secure pre-development services — giving them a better understanding of whether a project is viable, helping them expedite the timeline for the project, and alleviating their equity burden and early-stage risks.

Why:

• There are too few real estate developers of color in the United States. And in Detroit, many redevelopment projects were being led by people who weren’t from the community.
• That’s why the Equitable Development Initiative was founded in Detroit in 2018 by Capital Impact Partners, part of the Momentus Capital branded family of companies. Momentus Capital is a mission-driven organization dedicated to closing the racial wealth gap and bringing a continuum of capital to disinvested communities so that they can thrive.
• Developers of color receive training, mentorship, and access to capital so that they can grow their businesses, create more developments and affordable housing that will revitalize their communities, and ensure that people from Detroit have a greater voice in what a revitalized Detroit looks like.
• Providing this early-stage capital, which is often the most difficult to secure, not only assists developers of color — who often are disinvested and denied by traditional financial institutions – but also helps them avoid predatory lending practices.
• Since 2018, the Equitable Development Initiative has graduated more than 100 developers in the Detroit area from five cohorts. The success in Detroit has led to the expansion of the program into cities around the United States.

The developers receiving grants are:

• Anthony Askew (EDI 2020)
• Darius Bennett (EDI 2022) and Cecily King Plummer (EDI 2018)
• Chase Cantrell (EDI 2018), Damon Dickerson and Brandon Hodges
• Edward Carrington (EDI 2019)
• Ponce D. Clay (EDI 2022)
• Yvonne Cross (EDI 2021)
• Charles Dickerson III (EDI 2020)
• Rashard Dobbins (EDI 2022)
• Samantha Jenkins (EDI 2020)
• Karasi Development Group, LLC 
• Bobby D. Lewis (EDI 2022)
• Alisha Moss (EDI 2018) and Jeffrey Policicchio
• Chad Rhodes (EDI 2020), Clayton Neal (EDI 2020) and Kishon Harbert (EDI 2020)
• Tanya Stephens (EDI 2022)
• Luis Antonio Uribegan (EDI 2021)
• Terence Willis (EDI 2020)

*Note: Grant recipients listed together are working on the same project.