Capital Practice

The capital stack
is the project.

We design the capital behind affordable and workforce housing that does not depend on tax credits: the bank debt, CRA equity, catalytic money, and public capital that close a deal, and the housing funds that let those dollars work again.

Discuss a capital stack Non-LIHTC housing, explained

The Practice

Closed Without Tax Credits: Two projects, with CRA equity
Capital We Design: Debt, equity, catalytic, public
Who We Advise: Sponsors, lenders, foundations, agencies

A Note on the Work

Most housing that never gets built does not die for lack of capital. It dies because the capital cannot agree.

A regional bank wants CRA credit and a clean first position. A foundation wants impact it can report and principal it can recycle. A city wants units it can defend on the record and a dollar it can get back. A sponsor wants control. Each of these is reasonable. Left alone, they rarely fit in the same building.

Our work is the translation layer. We design the stack so that each counterparty can underwrite its own piece on its own terms, then we assemble it, in the right order, and close it. When the same problem repeats across a city or a portfolio, we design the fund or the public instrument that solves it once, so the next deal does not start from zero.

We have worked both sides of the credit table: running underwriting and a loan portfolio, raising and closing a loan fund, building a land acquisition fund and its underwriting, and closing construction loans with banks. We know what a credit committee will accept on first pass, and what it will send back.

The Practice

Six capabilities.
One balance sheet view.

We are engaged for a single deal, a portfolio, or a fund. In every case we start from the same question: who needs to say yes, on what terms, and in what order.

Non-LIHTC capital stack design

Workforce and mixed-income stacks built around bank debt, CRA equity, local incentives, soft funds, and sponsor capital, calibrated to the affordability thresholds that unlock bank participation.

ii.

CRA equity and bank partnerships

Matching projects with lenders whose CRA obligations, footprint, and appetite fit, and structuring the senior debt and concessionary equity so both close on the same timeline.

iii.

Catalytic and concessionary capital

Donor-advised fund dollars placed as concessionary debt, program-related investments, recoverable grants, guarantees, and promissory notes, each placed where it does the most work in the stack.

iv.

Housing fund design

Revolving loan funds, land acquisition and predevelopment funds, and catalytic sidecars alongside Opportunity Zone and other institutional capital: governance, underwriting criteria, and the terms that let principal recycle.

Repayable public capital

Instruments that let public dollars come back: construction interest buy-downs, bridge and recoverable structures, and ways to bring private, impact, and philanthropic capital alongside public funds.

vi.

Underwriting and credit structuring

Pro formas, sensitivity analysis, intercreditor terms, and the credit memo logic a lender will recognize, so the deal is underwritable before it reaches committee.

How We Work

Sequence is the discipline.

A stack designed before the entity is structured gets unwound. An incentive layered before the lender is chosen does not close. We work the order.

Diagnose

The population, the site, the affordability you can commit to, and the gap. What the deal is, not what we wish it were.

Design

The stack, the entity, and the terms each counterparty needs, modeled until it pencils for all of them at once.

Assemble

Lenders, CRA investors, foundations, and public partners, approached in the right order and in their own language.

Close and protect

Term sheets, intercreditor agreements, and ring-fenced structures that hold when a partner comes under pressure.

Evidence

Stacks we have actually closed.

Six sources, no tax credits

The Landing in Spokane: $6.99M assembled from Washington Trust Bank senior debt and CRA equity, municipal, state, and federal grants, and sponsor equity.

ii.

Seven months to groundbreaking

Spokane Rise: 48 units, CRA-financed, with 51% at or below 80% AMI and a ring-fenced structure that held when a partner entered receivership.

iii.

Philanthropic dollars as debt

Donor-advised fund capital brought in as concessionary debt for both Spokane projects and for a loan fund, alongside DAF donors who gave outright.

iv.

A loan fund, raised and closed

The Women's Empowerment Loan Fund at Catalyst of San Diego, built with the International Rescue Committee, CDFIs, commercial banks, CRA investors, and community foundations.

Private capital into public finance

Advisory to the Washington State Public Works Board and the Community Economic Revitalization Board on bringing private, impact, and philanthropic capital alongside public funds.

vi.

Public capital that comes back

The Spokane 1590 Pilot: a construction interest buy-down designed to return 100% of principal at permanent financing, in structuring with the city and its banks.

Who We Advise

Four seats at the table.
We have sat in each.

Developers and nonprofits

A stack that closes without giving away control, and a lender who understands the mission.

Lenders

Banks, credit unions, CDFIs

CRA-qualifying assets that are underwritable, well-structured, and built to perform.

Funders

Foundations and donors

Housing funds and catalytic placements that recycle principal and report real outcomes.

Public

Cities, counties, states

Instruments that get units built faster and return the public dollar to work again.

The thinking behind the practice.

Guide

Non-LIHTC Affordable Housing: Questions and Answers

How the faster, CRA-financed path works, who it serves, and what it asks of cities.

Read the guide

Essay

Bricks, Notes, and Mission

How nonprofits can use real estate and promissory notes to build wealth that lasts.

Read the essay