ULC January 2015 Partner Spotlight – Calvert Foundation!
The Urban Land Conservancy celebrates the achievements of its partnerships that create and preserve nonprofit facilities and affordable housing for communities in metro Denver. ULC’s Monthly Partner Spotlight is awarded to partners who demonstrate the value of collaboration, furthering our mission to improve the lives of Denver area residents through our real estate investments and community assets.
Congratulations to our January 2015 Partner Spotlight of the Month: Calvert Foundation!
Calvert Foundation enables individuals to invest in their communities through the Community Investment Note. Since 1995, more than 13,000 people have invested in these notes, which earn modest returns for the individual while economically empowering targeted impact communities. In 2014, Calvert began its first ever “Ours to Own” campaign in metro Denver. Through Ours to Own, Calvert is connecting communities through the Community Investment Note financing mechanism that supports local partners including Colorado Enterprise Fund, Community Reinvestment Fund, and Urban Land Conservancy. ANYONE can contribute as little as $20, earn a yield between .5% – 3%, and help fund community development projects and small businesses that strengthen metro Denver.
“Our partnership with ULC over the last year has been an exciting journey. They are unique in the breadth and depth of what they do, and are equally good at playing in the fast-paced Denver real estate market as they are conducting listening sessions with local neighborhood groups to ensure the community’s voice is heard every step of the way, “ says Jenn Pryce, President and CEO of Calvert Foundation. “That blend of the heart and the head is rare, and is one of the many reasons we love working with them, and why we felt the new Facility Fund could be impactful to communities in the Denver region.”
The anchor investment of this campaign is a new and unique $10 million Facility Fund. ULC is the sole borrower of this fund, which allows us to expand our work around facility creation and preservation to benefit area nonprofits. Investors in this loan fund include: Piton Foundation, Gary Community Investments, Colorado Health Foundation and The Denver Foundation.
“We are proud to support this collaborative effort to create systemic change in the Denver region,” says David J. Younggren, President of Gary Community Investments. “Through the Ours to Own campaign, Denver residents will be empowered to invest locally in ways that are meaningful to them, and nonprofit organizations will be strengthened through increased access to capital. We look forward to watching as this initiative mobilizes residents to engage more directly in community transformation.”
This new source allows ULC to address areas of need across the city, complimenting investments being made into the region by municipalities and community stakeholders.
Our first investment project through Ours to Own, the Downing Nonprofit Tower, was financed by the Facility Fund in December.
The Downing Nonprofit Tower is strategically located in central Denver just 1 block off of Colfax Avenue. About 60% of the tenants are nonprofits that serve over 1000 people per week on-site. This was an extremely important preservation opportunity for ULC, as the property was at risk of being redeveloped into a market rate project. With this acquisition, 130 jobs were preserved in a central location that is crucial to the clients served. ULC plans to make significant capital investments into the Tower, creating a better connected, higher quality work space for the 15 tenants housed in this 7 story, 35,000 sf building in Capital Hill.
One of the largest nonprofit tenants in the building is Lutheran Family Services, a faith based, nonprofit human service agency helping children and families during their most challenging times. They have 30 staff working out of the Downing Nonprofit Tower and serve approximately 2,000 clients each year. Their clientele is primarily comprised of immigrants and refugees from Bhutan, Burma, Iraq and Somalia adjusting to a new life in the United States. Having an office in the Downing Tower is critical to their organization because the location is close to many transit lines. As one of their coordinators explains,
“Most of our clients have to use public transportation when they initially arrive in the US. There may be a handful that is able to procure their own vehicles right away, but I would imagine about 90-95% of our clients use public transit, at least initially.”
We are thrilled to be able to help organizations like Lutheran Family Services stay in this essential location. This success story is just one of many we anticipate sharing all because of Calvert Foundation’s partnership with ULC. By providing our organization with a new source of capital, Calvert Foundation and the Ours to Own Initiative furthers our mission to acquire, develop, and preserve community real estate assets.
Thank you Calvert Foundation for an inspiring partnership! We look forward to sharing many more success stories on how the Facility Fund and Ours to Own support small businesses, nonprofit facilities and neighborhood investment across metro Denver!
Photos courtesy of David Thatcher and Lutheran Family Services