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Community Investment Initiative
The San Diego Capital Collaborative is committed to a socially responsible investment philosophy. We seek investments that are consistent with neighborhood specific revitalization strategies, supported by the community stakeholders, and produce social benefits while simultaneously producing economic returns to our investors and partners. Funds 
San Diego Smart Growth Fund is a $90 million private equity fund investing in urban residential, mixed use, and commercial properties targeting middle-income households in greater San Diego.  |
San Diego Capital CollaborativeOn behalf of our board and staff it is with sadness that I write to inform you that the San Diego Capital Collaborative will be ceasing operations and closing its office at the end of this month. This difficult decision was prompted by the continuing decline of the local real estate market and investment climate and finally cemented by the ultimate withdrawal of our major investor in the San Diego Smart Growth Fund, CalPers. 
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While we continue to believe in the importance of socially responsible investment of private capital in our low and moderate communities, our unique business model is no longer a viable model in today's economic times. Since the Fund's inception in 2005, the Fund invested approximately $30 million dollars in workforce housing, commercial, and mixed use housing projects in San Diego County. In addition to the actual investments made, we had developed a pipeline of over $90 million dollars of potential investments within San Diego's low and moderate income communities. In our role as sponsor and advisor to the Fund, we developed an investment screening and evaluation system to insure that our investments were consistent with our socially responsible investment philosophy. Additionally, we developed a Project Enhancement Program. This program was a project specific strategy to ensure that each project fulfilled our social economic goals. Included within this program was a Project Enhancement Agreement which was a voluntary, project specific agreement with the developer and the San Diego Smart growth Fund that included specific strategies to achieve mutually agreed upon social economic goals. These agreements were to provide the foundation upon which we could monitor the performance of our investments. One of the lessons learned throughout our experience was that private capital alone does not insure successful investments in community development projects. Private capital must be invested strategically and leveraged with other private and public resources. In response, we developed the Community Investment Initiative. The goal of this program was to develop community based strategic investment plans for 5 targeted communities. Through the civic engagement of our targeted communities we sought to develop support for and additional resources for investment in community development projects which would further each community's revitalization plans. With the financial support of the San Diego Foundation, Bank of America, California Bank and Trust, and Citicorp we accomplished the first phase of this initiative. We conducted individual surveys of key community stakeholders and established working groups of community stakeholders who participated in the development of community profiles for each of our targeted communities. These profiles consist of neighborhood assessments highlighting the community history, demographics, social infrastructure, significant public and private investment trends, and potential investment opportunities. These profiles contain key baseline data for the development of the community investment strategy. The profiles are located on our web site and we are hopeful that the San Diego Foundation will take ownership of the profiles and continue to make them available to the public on their website. Our most recent initiative focused on the growing foreclosure crisis which continues to destabilize our regional housing market and disproportionately impact our low and moderate income communities. In cooperation with the City/County Task Force we prepared a business concept for the development of a Land Bank and advocated for the establishment of this Land Bank in conjunction with the Neighborhood Stabilization funds. The purpose of the Land Bank was to contribute to the neighborhood stabilization, revitalization and preservation of San Diego County's communities, particularly San Diego's low and moderate income communities through the acquisition, rehabilitation, and disposition of foreclosure properties for use as workforce and affordable housing. We believe that this concept should be a component of the region's comprehensive strategy for addressing our foreclosure crisis. In addition, we worked with community stakeholders in developing and advocating for a comprehensive approach to the foreclosure crisis. This comprehensive approach is a neighborhood specific approach which included foreclosure prevention, code enforcement, acquisition and rehab of foreclosure properties, and homebuyer assistance. We participated as a co-sponsor in the "San Diego Neighborhood Stabilization Summit" which was held at the Joan Kroc Center and attended by over a 100 interested community stakeholders. We continue to participate with the San Diego Neighborhood Stabilization working group to complete the working paper which outlines the proposed neighborhood stabilization plan for the San Diego region. Through out own individual efforts we will continue to advocate for a prospective comprehensive neighborhood stabilization strategy. In conclusion, we would like to thank our volunteer board, all of our financial supporters, community supporters, industry advisors, interns, and volunteers for the time and support you have provided us over the past 6 years. We continue to believe that socially responsible investment of private and public resources will be a key ingredient to the future economic recovery of our region and hope that our experience and efforts have made a significant contribution to that movement. As of the end of this month, should you have any questions or wish to contact us, please feel free to contact me directly at bschultz1@san.rr.com. Sincerely, | ||