Recently, we have been immersed in the world of Community-Owned Real Estate (CORE): projects that place commercial, mixed-use, and residential property into community-governed, mission-oriented stewardship models. We are excited to release a briefing that documents needs and solutions for capitalizing CORE projects.
CORE is a major opportunity to reshape the way that wealth is built in (and extracted from) communities across the board. Momentum for the field is building: community leaders are developing innovative models across the country, investors and policymakers are increasingly seeing value in the ownership opportunity, and new fieldbuilding efforts are emerging.
While CORE projects often move through the same basic phases as conventional real estate – predevelopment, acquisition, construction or rehabilitation, permanent financing, and long-term operations – their goals fundamentally change the capital required. Permanent affordability, community governance, shared ownership, and long-term stewardship entail a need for more different blends of capital stacks from a wider range of capital providers.
To reduce barriers to investing in CORE, Transform Finance has been researching how these projects are financed, understanding which capital providers are relevant to different product types, and documenting deals and the ecosystems behind them (see our case studies on New Economy Project / East New York CLT and Nexus / Shingle Creek Center, in collaboration with the Center for Community Investment).
Drawing on literature, case studies, and conversations with practitioners across the field, the memo maps out where CORE projects hit barriers in financing — and what solutions are emerging to meet these projects’ financial needs.
This briefing aims to:
Community-owned real estate offers a different vision for who controls land, who benefits from development, and who shares in the value that real estate creates. The capital infrastructure should be built to support that vision.
To dig deeper, check out two case studies we released earlier this year in a collaboration with the Center for Community Investment (CCI): Nexus Community Partners and New Economy Project.
