16 Emerging Real Estate Developers from Atlanta Region Selected for Capital Impact Partners’ Equitable Development Initiative

September 6, 2024 (Atlanta, GA) – Capital Impact Partners has selected 16 real estate developers from the city of Atlanta and its surrounding counties for the region’s inaugural cohort of the Equitable Development Initiative.

This free nine-month program will help Atlanta’s emerging real estate developers overcome the systemic obstacles that have prevented them from being more involved in the region’s booming real estate market — and, in turn, to bring more affordable housing and other real estate projects to disinvested communities.  

The Equitable Development Initiative is a landmark program created by Capital Impact Partners in 2018 in the Detroit region. Since then, the program has trained more than 250 real estate developers and expanded to several metropolitan areas throughout the United States.

From August 2024 through May 2025, program participants will receive the tools they need to grow their businesses — including training, technical assistance, mentorship, networking, and potential pathways for financing.

These 16 emerging developers are seeking to develop real estate in the city of Atlanta, as well as Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fulton, or Gwinnett counties:

• Ray Acosta, Dacula
• Miles Alexander III, Jonesboro
• Terry Brantley III, Atlanta
• Shelita Compton, Kennesaw
• Aaron Davis, Decatur
• Ashley Davis, Mableton
• Majesty Gayle, Atlanta
• Derrick Holland, Tucker
• Tomond Jack, Decatur
• Michael Oden, Marietta
• Marissa Phipps, Tucker
• Melvin Phillips, Atlanta
• Charles Robinson, Atlanta
• Lester Simpson, College Park
• Raven Thompson, Atlanta
• Ramon Tookes, Atlanta

“I’m pleased to welcome these 16 real estate developers and am excited not only to work with them over these next nine months, but also to see the impact they will create in our region’s disinvested communities for the betterment of their residents,” said Tommy Lester, manager of Atlanta initiatives for Capital Impact Partners. The mission-driven lender is part of the Momentus Capital branded family of organizations, which also includes CDC Small Business Finance.

A Need for More Affordable Housing Units in Atlanta

From 2010 to 2020, more than 800,000 people moved to the Atlanta region, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center’s J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy. Home prices in Atlanta’s five-county core have increased by 73% since 2017, ​​according to a study by KB Advisory Group and Urban Land Institute Atlanta. Rent prices have also increased significantly, by 33%, and the five-county region has lost 130,000 units that had been priced at less than $1,000 per month. 

All of this has also made it more difficult for people living with low-to-moderate incomes to find housing, especially when they do not qualify for subsidies. And the increase in housing costs has also made it more expensive for the region’s residents to travel between their jobs and where they can afford to live. These increases in housing and transportation costs have particularly impacted communities that were already disinvested and in need of more opportunities.

How the Equitable Development Initiative Can Help

The Equitable Development Initiative is modeled after the successful program that Capital Impact Partners launched in Detroit in 2018. It has since expanded into several other regions facing similar situations, including the Washington, D.C. metro area; the San Francisco Bay Area; Dallas; and Cleveland. 

Capital Impact Partners also hosted a similar program in Austin called the Small Developer Training and has run other programs for more experienced developers.

Graduates of these programs have gone on to create important projects for their communities. For example, Edward Carrington, a graduate of the Detroit program, is building The Ribbon, a mixed-use building with one commercial unit and 18 affordable residential units; and Ayesha Hudson, a graduate of the D.C.-area program, recently created nine new affordable housing units and preserved four existing affordable housing units.

“The Equitable Development Initiative gave me a good foundation for how to do commercial real estate development,” said Ms. Hudson. “It opened doors for me, gave me instant access to an expanded network that would have taken much longer to build on my own, and accelerated my path forward.”

Historically, the real estate industry has been dominated by larger national and global firms. Helping Atlanta’s emerging real estate developers play a greater role not only helps them grow their businesses, but these developers are also often more focused on creating more affordable housing and adding mixed-use projects to historically disinvested areas. 

In Atlanta, the Equitable Development Initiative has been specifically crafted to confront the top challenges real estate developers face in the region. 

Developers will receive broad-based training — in areas such as obtaining funding, project budgeting, project and contractor management, site selection, sustainability, legal services, and community engagement — as well as local mentorship and network building. The curriculum will also include discussions about infill housing, missing middle housing, and transit-oriented development.

Program speakers will include representatives from government agencies as well as organizations that are seeking to create more opportunities for Atlanta’s disinvested communities. 

And Equitable Development Initiative participants will be connected with experienced real estate developers from Atlanta — including Leonard Adams, Daniel Alexander, Cassius Coleman, Joel Dixon, Darion Dunn, Sharon Guest, Cherie Ong, and Rod Teachy — who will serve as mentors or presenters. 

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