Pittsburgh and surrounding regions have seen a significant increase in development projects,
especially in historically Black and minority communities. However, the number of minority developers,
especially Black developers, remains low. This is largely the result of multiple challenges and obstacles including lack of exposure to resources, capital, capacity, and market and ecosystem factors such as professional networks.

One of Neighborhood Allies’ major goals is to identify policy priorities and opportunities to improve the local community development system to ensure significant and equitable results. Our strength is to fill gaps in the system and help to develop a deeper understanding of barriers to cultural preservation, community building, and resident empowerment.

We’d like to thank Dollar Bank for this generous grant that will help us achieve this goal through our Emerging Developer Program. This program has been specifically designed for Black developers and will focus on developers with a proven track record that are seeking to reach the next level of development sophistication and professional success. Through this program, we will address the critical need to strengthen the technical capacity and accelerate the success of Black emerging developers, so that they can serve as the backbone of neighborhood development and drive equitable economic growth.

With this funding, we expect the following outcomes:

• 1) A curated list of 8 shovel-ready, bank fundable developments which will potentially generate commercial loan opportunities in LMI areas;
• 2) $250,000 in pre-development costs supported or reduced;
• 75% MWBE participation in contracted pre-development services. This essentially will scale quality and effective developers/organizations and strengthen their contributions to the Black communities and opportunities for other projects long term.

For more information on the Emerging Developer Program, contact our Senior Program Manager for Real Estate Development, Glenn Grayson Jr. (glenn@neighborhoodallies.org).