2022 Summer Issue - 27

ULI MEETING HIGHLIGHTS 2022
Oregon. To its " amazement and delight, " Guerrilla
was able to fill the tranche in less than
three days, Mackay said.
" I think that really speaks to this idea that
social impact and crowd investing really go
hand in hand, " said Mackay. " It is a tool that
can catalyze for community benefit and start
to open up the conversation: who's benefiting
from real estate development? "
Making Good on Promises
Panelist Joanna Bartholomew, founder and
chief executive officer at Baltimore-based
O'Hara Development Partners, said opting for
crowdfunding in Baltimore " made people feel
like they had an opportunity to be involved. "
Realizing that many residents were fatigued by
past " false promises, " her company talked to
local neighbors to find out exactly what they
wanted to see in their own neighborhoods.
Adding the extra step of educating potential
investors is also often necessary, Bartholomew
said. This is especially true given the fact that
many investors are more concerned about
paying for their groceries, for example, rather
than the rate of return on an investment.
" We did spend time educating and just
being very direct, " said Bartholomew. " Some
people said, 'I'll try it, and I'll put in the minimum
of the $500,' and some people were willing
to go a little bit further. "
A key is taking the time to understand
what each community needs as opposed to
attempting to use a copy-and-paste solution
for each neighborhood, said panelist Taidgh
McClory, founder and managing principal of
Massachusetts-based social impact enterprise
T.H. McClory LLC and a member of the ULI
Responsible Property Investment Council. It is
also important to consider how the commercial
real estate industry can be used to build
wealth and help the greater good.
" I would think at the end of the day the
reason why we're trying to study neighborhood
investment structures is because we believe
it is one tool, one mechanism to address the
racial wealth inequities that are in the world
today, " McClory said. " [It is] not the only tool,
because we know that before you can kind of
close that gap, there are many forms of inequities
that you need to solve for: health, jobs,
access to technology. "
It boils down to looking at the bigger picture.
While it is important to keep in mind the
importance of using passive investments to
create wealth, there are other avenues, including
growing a business and investing in " dif " Typically,
we're talking about equity tranches
dedicated to small-dollar investments by
nonaccredited investors such as community members,
as you've heard about, potentially project residents,
and supporters of a project. "
CHARU SINGH, EMERGENT CAPITAL PARTNERS
ferent types of assets beyond real estate but
infrastructure, " he said.
" I think that's where we see great opportunity,
particularly in the communities that we're
studying, because I think there's a natural
multiplier effect when you think about not just
preserving an opportunity for a community
member or resident to own a piece of their
neighborhood, but also supporting the businesses
that are in those neighborhoods, "
McClory said. " And I think that can really
have the most opportunity to address the
racial wealth inequities in these communities
long term. "
KAREN JORDAN is a Los Angeles-based business writer.
Christopher Ptomey, Silvia Urrutia, Nihar Shah, Gregory Heller, Ali Mooney
ULI District Councils Address Local Housing
Challenges
ULI's Terwilliger Center for Housing
is increasing its focus on work done at the
district council level, Christopher Ptomey, the
center's executive director, said in introducing
a panel at the Spring Meeting.
The panel, titled " Attainable Housing for
All: Replicable Best Practices from Local Housing
Challenges, " presented work at the district
council level in three regions.
Phoenix area: Arizona housing once was
generally affordable, but that has changed in
recent years as rising costs have squeezed
residents, especially renters, said panelist
Silvia Urrutia, founder of U Developing LLC
and chair of ULI Arizona's Housing, Health,
and Equity Task Force. " We used to worry
about 30 percent AMI " -households earning
just 30 percent of the area median income-
" but over the last 10 years we worry about
100 percent AMI. They can't rent. "
In a partnership with Vitalyst Health Foundation
and the city of Tempe, the task force
focused on how to create healthy and more
equitable built environments with affordable,
high-quality housing. More than 60 community
organizations attended meetings and
provided feedback, Urrutia said. Resulting
recommendations centered on six themes:
inclusive development that encourages revitalization
without displacement, especially
near transit; planning and regulations that
support such housing, including increased
density; access to capital; sustainable,
healthy design; land and location, including
land banking; and partnerships, especially
those that involve the public, private, and
nonprofit sectors.
In just the past year, progress has been
made, she said: Arizona began a low-income
housing tax credit program, and the Phoenixarea
council of governments recognized
needs in its regional plan. Also, ULI Arizona
SUMMER 2022
URBAN LAND
27
2022 Summer Issue

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