Community
Development
Community Development (CD) is the work a community undertakes to make itself a desirable place to live and work – to make itself a community of choice.
Often the Economic Development portion of CD, essentially the creation of community wealth, garners the lion’s share of attention because of its highly visible and easily measurable employer or project focus.
Good CD, however, involves balancing human concerns, monetary investments, long term thinking, and broad based creative engagement and planning well beyond any single project or effort.
NFR’s experienced team helps you understand and sort the information – facts, figures and hype – to consider all aspects of your effort, large or small, before any precious resources are invested.
Let us help you attract and manage the CD you want. We can help you secure and solidify the resource commitments needed to make your efforts a success.
Housing
Entering the 2020 decade much attention has been brought to a national housing “shortage”. However, there actually is a significant supply of available and affordable housing, much of it simply not located in the “latest” or “fashionable” neighborhoods. These assets frequently face energy, current fashion sense or community image challenges.
In reality these homes represent opportunities for community agencies, home buyers, house flippers and investors – and the businesses and residents they employ. These “latent assets” offer a significant economic impact in our communities – real money, real employment, real comprehensive community development.
NFR has worked with for-profit and nonprofit developers to rehabilitate existing homes and build new homes on vacant sites – frequently in neighborhoods that are ahead of their “market discovery”.
NFR can help you develop and engage Woman Owned Businesses Enterprises (WBE), Minority Owned Business Enterprises (MBE). We can also guide your efforts in working work with investors and lenders on both investment and owner occupied project financing, ensure your sensitivity to historic preservation, and help you navigate Home Owner Association (HOA) and neighborhood specific restrictions.
You can jump start and successfully manage your community’s economic and human engine.
Micro & Social Enterprise
A micro enterprise is any business or integrated series of businesses operating on a small scale, frequently with less than ten employees.
NFR has experience successfully developing both types of businesses. We can help you understand, develop and work through the planning and operational mechanics of creating, investvesting in or involvement with these businesses.
A social enterprise is a venture, regardless of legal structure or size, that advances a social agenda by engaging in business or earned income strategies to support all or part of a mission. These businesses have a double bottom line; one financial, one social.
“Social enterprises address a need or social or environmental problem using market-driven approaches.”
Social Enterprise Alliance (SEA)
Neighborhood Development
Watch for new information coming to this section soon.
Historic Preservation
Watch for new information coming to this section soon.