Commercial Affordability Summit: A Recap (Part 1)
Commercial Affordability Summit Highlights
In October, community leaders, financing strategists, philanthropic funders, economic developers, and policy makers convened for a day of sharing ideas about regional models and approaches to increasing commercial affordability, capital access, community ownership, and capacity building, and increasing connections to help grow models for a thriving and equitable regional small business ecosystem.
Using the COO’s 2020-22 Commercial Affordability Pilot project as a jumping off point, participants heard about other innovative models supporting commercial affordability, access to capital, and capacity building for small businesses of communities most impacted by historic disinvestment and displacement.
The day was packed with storytelling, lessons learned, wonderings and big questions, examples from our region and other states, and ideas for what could be next in commercial affordability. Because of the richness of the discussions, we have split this recount into two entries.
This week’s post summarizes the results, learnings, and experiences from the 2020-22 COO Commercial Affordability Pilot and the keynote speech by Oscar Perry Abello about how there are many solutions to the problem of a lack of commercial affordability and community owned and controlled real estate or finance which are being developed, piloted, replicated and scaled. Next week, read about other current programs and models for commercial affordability and access to capital and support for small business and entrepreneurs.
Read on, watch the summit’s videos (panel 1, panel 2, panel 3 and keynote), and be inspired to engage in the conversation and to work with your communities to activate affordable commercial space in which small businesses can succeed and thrive.
Zenovia Harris, CEO of the Kent Chamber of Commerce, speaks during the first panel of the COO Commercial Affordability Summit.
2020-2022 COO Commercial Affordability Pilot: Investing in small businesses means investing in community
A first panel featuring consulting team members and participating small businesses of the COO Commercial Affordability Pilot, kicked off the summit. Keeping in mind that the Pilot Project was developed with the intent to identify and test ways to support small business owners who had been displaced or were at risk of being displaced from their neighborhoods due to rising costs and lack of access to capital, panel participants shared stories about the timelines, the model components, and some of the learnings gained as a result of running the pilot, starting at the core, with community centeredness.
“One of the themes that I’ve been reflecting around this was sort of risk and trust and you can think of that in a very sort of traditional sense around the experience of businesses but also the risk and trust of this being a pilot and that we were going to make sure that decision-making and guidance was led by folks closest and on the ground.” - Ishmael Nuñez, Partner, BDS Planning
“Community for me is something that should be a model moving forward for any pilot program. You cannot help a group of people if you don’t hear from that group of people what they need. And you can’t really go ask that group of people what they need if you don’t have people that are in that community [in advisory roles].” - Zenovia Harris, CEO, Kent Chamber of Commerce
Panelists explored the importance of capacity building and technical assistance in times of uncertainty such as the COVID pandemic and throughout the life of a small business development. As a panelist shared, technical assistance is as valuable as cash, because entrepreneurs are skilled in what they do but not necessarily in the many other aspects of running a business (real estate, loans, construction project management and more!). Small business owners don’t normally know which questions to ask so it’s crucial to also give them wraparound skills and the support.
“The project highlighted the importance of wraparound service within the context of commercial affordability. Not just the funding of it but how do we support businesses with the knowledge of planning, design planning, and project management of construction projects.” - Che Wong, Sr. Business Lender, VP, Craft3
“Even though you think you have all the right people, there’s still gaps and there’s still a community that needs to surround the business to help them, because they don’t know where the gaps are. They don’t know what questions to ask, because they’ve never gone through it. Just the idea of this program having some sort of technical assistance was huge.” - Darren Medina, Principal, Darren Medina Design
Ana Castro, co-owner of the Salvadorean Bakery, speaks during the first panel of the COO Commercial Affordability Summit.
“I remember when they announced that we need to close for COVID, and I thought, ‘The Salvadorean Bakery is ending,’ because we had a lot of customers that liked to dine in. Being an immigrant and coming from a country where there was a civil war, I was thinking, ‘Oh, they will lock you up, they will not let you go out,’ and so every negative thing came up to my mind. But then, we started thinking about what we will do to overcome all of these negative things ... So, we came up with an idea and arranged everything and then we did better with the pandemic because a lot of people came and helped us. In that moment, I saw the community get together ... And then we met Che, Melissa, and Darren [with the pilot project.]” - Ana Castro, Co-Owner, Salvadorean Bakery
Timing for launching a commercial affordability program, taking into account the developing stage and experience of the partnering businesses, was another component—and learning—of the project. The pilot also highlighted the importance to check in with the businesses to ensure everything is in order after the project ends.
“We had to make a choice very early on between investing in projects that were very early stage and those that were in progress. The importance of timing and having a long runway to invest in projects at different stages monetarily and with the technical support is very critical.” - Melissa Lafayette, NDC
“The knowledge sharing that occurred as we went into the process starting with the city [of SeaTac]. They shared with us about the Chamber of Commerce, who also shared with us about Craft3, who shared with us about the pilot. And then, for anybody that ever wants to see the project I offer tours and show people what this pilot program did and I just try to give back to anybody in the community that’s doing any project that’s similar and pay it forward.” - Faisal Mohamed, Co-Owner, SeaTac International Mall
“I think it’s very important that the pilot reaches back out to the business owners within the year or so to make sure it is still doing good, to see what has been added to their plate, because as we repay our loans back, we might need to take out another loan on top of that. So, I think it’s very important that you guys reach back out to the owners you’ve invested in, so we don’t lose our businesses and lose what we invested in.” - Terrell Jackson, Owner, Jackson’s Catfish Corner
In terms of opportunities, the COO Commercial Affordability Pilot showed that it required people to be very adaptive, responsive, and available, and government doesn’t always work that way. It is crucial that government makes accessing resources easier, stable and permanent for small for-profit businesses.
“The bureaucracy of government is not always, or is rarely, compatible with the objectives of this kind of a pilot and this kind of a process. What are our biggest learnings? The county needs to be ready to deploy capital as soon as possible, and I don’t know that at any point in the project they were ready to do that, and there were big lags there. The county values lots of documentation in a really specific format and look. [The pilot] required people to be really nimble. It required people to be really responsive and available and adaptive and the government doesn’t work like that.” - Aparna Rae, Founder, Moving Beyond
“Supporting businesses really means supporting all of us. Businesses help communities thrive and ultimately, we’re all part of communities. So, this notion of not using government funding to support for-profit… in my mind there’s just no better way to invest in your community than to invest in the businesses. When we support these businesses, [we’re] also supporting the next generation.”
The model starts with the community vision
Oscar Perry Abello, the senior economic justice correspondent for Next City covering alternative economic models and policies nationwide, offered the keynote speech about America’s Next Top Model or how the most successful models are driven by community needs and vision and facilitated by a range of technical and financial tools depending on their local and regional context.
Through the stories of many of these examples, Oscar shared how “it’s not just commercial affordability. It’s also community owned and controlled real estate or finance. It’s not just about the price –that’s definitely part of it—but it’s also who owns it, who decides who gets to be in that storefront, who decides who gets to be in that warehouse.”
He also cautioned the audience to have realistic expectations. It's going to be hard, he admitted, because those interested in community-owned or -controlled real estate or finance are working against a history of disinvestment that has left many of these properties in need of rehabilitation and are also up against a mostly white male-led capital of commercial real estate who benefits those look like their leaders. Yet, community owned and controlled real estate and finance can work.
“Start with the community vision. And I would recommend going to where they’re already talking about it. It might be a barbershop, it might be a church, you don’t have to start the conversation. It’s already happening somewhere, and you just have to find it and go there. You might be a lawyer, or a banker, or a developer, or a planner, or an elected official, or an economic development authority, wherever you are, just go there and see who is in the room. And if it’s one of these other pieces you’re missing, you just bring them in. Talk about it.”
There are many examples of community-owned or -controlled real estate or finance in different cities across the country: East Portland Community Investment Trust (Portland), Kensington Corridor Trust (Philadelphia), EG Woode Collective (Chicago), Africatown Community Land Trust (Seattle)… but in the end, “it’s really only one model: find the conversation about what the community wants.”
Watch the video of Panel 1 – 2020-22 COO Commercial Affordability Pilot here (or above).
Watch the Keynote with Oscar Perry Abello here (or above).
*Quotes edited for length and clarity.