a coalition o f 2 7 public and private lenders that provided the additional $13.3 million in w orking capital that Fam icos needed to build a housing development consisting of 183 attractive tow nhouses at East 79th Street and Lexington Avenue. Lexington Village, the first m arket-rate rental property to be built in H ough in 50 years, bore several hallm arks o f M inter’s evolving philosophy o f philanthropy. It w as a “ project of scale” that had the potential to offer a system ic solution to a problem , not a sm all program that tinkered at its edges. And its success depended on values only the Foundation could bring to the table: sustained com mitment, innovative use o f resources and the ability to forge partnerships. “ Steve’s heart, his love, is in figuring out how to m ake one plus one equal three,” noted Henry L. M eyer III, chairm an of the board and chief executive officer of KeyBank, a T C F trustee bank. M eyer’s observations were also informed by his former service as a chairm an o f N eighborhood Progress, Incorporated (NPI), an intermediary that grew out of M inter’s experiences with Lexington Village. H aving proceeded by trial and error to put together this physical redevelopment project, M inter wanted to figure out how to give the city’s embryonic com munity development corporations (C D C s) the expertise and resources he had lacked. In 1986, he convened the N eigh borhood Strategy G roup, an inform al coalition of private funders, Cleveland Tomorrow officials and neighborhood representatives. After two years of discussions, these partners joined forces to create a super-coordinating agency for neighborhood redevelopment, with T C F supplying the lead resources. By the time o f its 15th anniversary in 2 0 0 3 , NPI had become a one-stop source o f operating support, technical assistance and w orking capital for the city’s m ost active com m unity development organizations. Its real estate subsidiary could assist with projects too large for a single C D C to undertake, and its $15 million pool of project financing could be used to catalyze private investment. T C F remained N P I’s largest single source o f support and had even initiated discussions as o f 2 0 0 3 about w ays to increase the financing pool to $50 million.
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