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POWERED BY REAL TIMES MEDIA
Volume 81 – Number 7
michiganchronicle.com
October 25-31, 2017
New program to increase the number of minority developers in Detroit Capital Impact Partners and JPMorgan Chase launch innovative two-year pilot program Capital Impact Partners, with support from JPMorgan Chase & Co., has announced a new $5 million program committed to help more minority real estate developers participate in Detroit’s continued economic recovery by providing them with critical training opportunities and access to capital. The program will help 15-20 new minority developers help their businesses grow. As part of the firm’s $150 million investment in Detroit’s recovery, JPMorgan Chase has committed to a $500,000, twoyear investment in Capital Impact’s Equitable Development Initiative. This program will provide a combination of catalytic capital, one-on-one mentorship with local experts, and formalized training to bolster inclusivity within Detroit’s real estate market. The two-year program is designed to kick-start the development of small- and mid-sized mixed-use, multi-family residential projects in the city’s mixed-use corridors and is aligned with Capital Impact’s mission — helping people build communities of opportunity that break barriers to success. Nationally and locally, minority developers are often underrepresented in the broader real estate development industry. In fact, Capital Impact realized of the $152 million it loaned in Detroit between 2006 and 2015, projects led by minority developers received approximately 1/10th of that financing. “Capital Impact recognizes the disparities minority developers face in Detroit, and likely across the country. There is a need for increased support to better ensure real estate developers of color who represent the Detroit diversity are able to participate in the city’s revitalization,” said Melinda Clemons, Detroit market lead, Capital Impact Partners. “We’ve seen success in the implementation of similar type programs in other cities like Milwaukee and Los Angeles and are confident this new effort will ensure that the brick-and-mortar development component of Detroit’s economic growth continues to be inclusive.” Together, Capital Impact, JPMorgan Chase and several other organizations critical to the introduction of the Equitable Development Initiative — including partners within Detroit’s CDFI community, city government and National Development Council — will support budding minority developers by providing them with mentorship, management training and low-cost capital to develop real estate projects in Detroit’s neighborhoods. The resources will help participants with project budgeting, real estate finance, project and contractor management, legal services and community engagement.
DUGGAN VS. YOUNG, the gloves finally come off
By Keith A. Owens Senior Editor
When Mayor Mike Duggan and Sen. Coleman Young II come face to face for their first and only debate during what has been a relatively boring campaign so far (excepting a few moderately interesting twists here and there), there is likely to be a yawning gap between what most voters desperately want to see and what they get. What most voters tuning in would probably like to see is a substantive debate tackling the myriad serious issues that continue to confront their city, despite the undeniable progress that has been made so far. They will want to hear more
about what is being planned for the neighborhoods, and what has already been done or is currently in process. They will want to hear about what the mayor’s office can do to lend a much-needed hand in repairing Detroit’s tattered public school system and to prepare the young people in those schools for the world that awaits them. Not the next generation of students, but the students who are in those schools right now. And they will want to hear more about jobs, and how they can keep from losing their homes, and what is being done to keep their streets safe with a ranking that saddles us with the third highest per capita murder rate in the country (45.2 per 100,000 residents) behind St. Louis (59.3 per 100,000) and Baltimore (51.2 per 100,000). For the record, despite the
screaming national headlines about Chicago (27.9 per 100,000), Detroit is far worse. So that’s what most viewers hope they will see, because these issues are what matter to them the most. But is it what we can honestly expect? Hopefully the panel of moderators will manage to keep everything on track, so we shall see. Chances are it will be Duggan who presents himself as the candidate on the high road because his huge lead in the polls and in fundraising makes it easy for him to take that stance. Duggan won’t be slinging any mud, not because he doesn’t know how but because he doesn’t need to. But Young needs to draw blood, a lot of it, and this is his best and big-
See DEBATE page A-4
“This critical capital and training for new developers will help more Detroiters share in the city’s continued comeback,”
See NEW PROGRAM page A-4
WHAT’S INSIDE
Rosa Parks’ home returns to the states, and with any luck Detroit Civil Rights Movement, which is antithetical to that.”
Chronicle Staff reports
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The modest wood frame house that civil rights icon Rosa Parks called home and where she spent much of her life after refusing to submit to the tyranny of bigotry in Montgomery, Alabama, and standing her ground — or keeping her seat and ultimately becoming the catalyst for the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott, will return to the U.S. from its current location in Berlin.
As part of a collaborative project organized by Mendoza and Brown University, the house will be on display in Providence, Rhode Island at the WaterFire Arts Center next year.
The home was on a demolition list in Detroit until it was saved by Parks’ niece and a Berlin-based artist, who moved it to Germany and reassembled it in his yard, piece by piece. The home was slated to be demolished in Detroit last year, but her niece, Rhea McCauley, prevented that from happening by purchasing the structure and donating it to a Berlin artist named Ryan Mendoza. He reportedly dismantled the home and rebuilt it in Germany.
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The move back to the states is a move Mendoza and the Parks family say is timely and more than necessary given the state of race relations and cultural tensions plaguing the nation today.
But the fragile but brilliant structure is coming back to the states.
Mendoza, 45, told the Daily Mail that Parks’ home holds so much significance in this day and age with the current state of racism in America. Parks left Montgomery in 1957 after receiving death threats for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man.
“Auntie Rosa was an American hero and we shouldn’t have to have other countries acknowledge our heroes for us,” McCauley. “It’s a step in the right direction.”
“If you look at the current situation in America, you have all of these monuments to the Confederacy, which are monuments to slavery,” said Mendoza. “There are very few monuments to the
She and her husband struggled to find work, prompting them to move to Detroit. She resided in the Detroit home with her loved ones and continued to fight for racial justice for decades. Parks, dubbed the First
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