The Collective Featured in Impact Alpha

by Dennis Price, Published April 27, 2021 | The Reconstruction

Read the full article here.

“Decades of failed policies and extractive investments have left Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia with undervalued housing, underfunded services and a lack of access to financing. 

A group of seasoned Black developers, along with investment professionals and public policy experts, have teamed up around a more inclusive vision and a new investment vehicle to fund its execution.

The thesis of The Collective: investment strategies that deliver real community benefit will also outperform financially. 

To demonstrate the proposition, the Collective has teamed with 17 Asset Management to raise the Philadelphia Real Estate Impact and Equity Fund. The fund’s $100 million target size is meant to be big enough to attract institutional capital that has too often overlooked Black developers individually. The group expects to reach a $25 million first close by July. 

The Collective is putting capital “in the hands of the people who know those neighborhoods and have a vested interest in recreating them and rebuilding them for the residents who are there,” said policy expert Sandra Dungee Glenn, a founder of The Collective.

Philadelphia is thriving, she said, but that prosperity hasn’t benefited Black businesses, neighborhoods or residents. ‘The Collective is disrupting this tale of two Philadelphias.’”