CPC Adds $20 Million to ACCESS Initiative, Expands Funding for BIPOC Developers
The Community Preservation Corporation (CPC) has added an additional $20 million in funding for its Acquiring Capital and Capacity for Economic Stability and Sustainability (ACCESS) initiative, Commercial Observer has learned. The initiative offers funding plus technical and educational support to Black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) developers and real estate entrepreneurs, and targets high-quality housing projects in minority communities.
ACCESS was launched in 2020, and since then the demand for the funding and support services it offers has exceeded CPC’s initial $20 million investment. This new round of funding brings CPC’s total investment to $40 million.
“CPC is proud to double its commitment to brown and Black real estate entrepreneurs by increasing our ACCESS program to $40 million,” said Sadie McKeown, president of CPC, in a prepared statement. “CPC’s mission is to support real estate investments that make low- and moderate-income neighborhoods thrive. Increasing our commitment to ACCESS provides developers of color capital products and support that meet their unique needs and allows them to further their investment and impact in communities.”
“I think the overall success in these last 18 or 19 months has really proven itself out in terms of our ability to create a pipeline of activities that has well exceeded the $20 million that we initially put in place,” said Lawrence Hammond, senior vice president and director of ACCESS. “As a result, we find ourselves now at a place where we’ve actually gone back and gotten approval for an additional $20 million. So that, in itself, speaks volumes to the impact that we’re having.”
Since its launch, CPC’s ACCESS has deployed $8 million in capital to eight individual BIPOC developers’ nine multifamily developments in New York state, but the program’s pipeline has a far more extensive reach. Combining already funded projects with those currently in process, ACCESS will fund 30 investments being spearheaded by 24 BIPOC developers, and totaling $24 million.
“If you’re just giving money without knowledge or access to that human capital or that education, you’re setting them [BIPOC developers] up for failure,” said Wilhelmena Norman, assistant vice president of CPC and manager of community impact for ACCESS. “So with that training, now we have a whole bunch of other BIPOC developers in the pipeline, and I consider it something that we’re seen as being wildly successful.”
CPC is hoping to capitalize on its relationship with government agencies such as the New York State Homes and Community Renewal with its Legacy Cities program, the idea of which is to give dilapidated one- to four-family houses to local developers, with weight given to minority- and women-owned business enterprises.
Update: This story originally misattributed source material. This has been corrected. We apologize for the error.
Emily Fu can be reached at efu@commercialobserver.com.
