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“Social Impact Advisor” (“SIA”)

“SIA” OVERVIEW

The “Social Impact Advisor” (the “SIA”) is a new type of must have consultant for a real estate development team. Just as a Sustainability (or “Green”) Consultant was a relatively new type of consultant to be on a real estate development team 10 or 15 years ago, the SIA is a new consulting service that is going to be gaining importance and necessity.

MAXIMIZING SOCIAL IMPACT

The SIA role exists to advise developers, property owners, community groups, nonprofits, funders, and others on ways to maximize the social impact and community benefiting components of a proposed future real estate development project.

The SIA works with the development team, community, city staff and officials, and funding sources to determine strategy, act as liaison, source non-traditional and social impact capital funds, manages community engagement and neighborhood relations, and overall reach mutually desirable “public good” outcomes as a significant component of a future project.

THE LEAD ON FILLING COMMERCIAL SPACE

Often times too, the SIA takes the lead on filling ground floor commercial space—determine the programable strategy (hopefully very early in the planning stages of a project), identify potential space users, work to assemble and organize a final social impact cohort of future space occupants, negotiate leases (or commercial space condo sales contracts), plan for and supervise commercial space tenant improvement build-out, and in general properly implement the pre-determined strategy and space user mix upon completion of project.

SUMMARY OF “SIA” EXPERTISE

The Social Impact Advisor service can be uniquely tailored to any project, of any size and scope—including any combination of the following roles and functional areas:

    • Serving as owner’s rep to community groups, nonprofit organizations, philanthropies, property owners, potential tenants, etc.
    • Acting as a “Community Coach” to community groups faced with significant real estate decisions, and/or to advise and act as liaison between

communities and developers of proposed neighborhood real estate development projects to reach mutually desirable outcomes acceptable to all stakeholders

  • Assisting communities in preserving historic and other significant existing buildings by helping find alternative feasible uses
  • Offering expertise and understanding in the following subjects:
    • Social equity challenges
    • Systemic discriminatory policies and practices
    • Food justice and community “food deserts”
    • Affordable housing and housing insecurity issues
    • Affordable housing tools, including the Community Land Trust model and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (“LIHTC”)
    • Gentrification and involuntary displacement of long-time community members
    • “Commercial Gentrification” causing displacement of local small businesses and social service organizations
    • Securing early childhood education (“ECE”) and/or daycare facilities
    • Accessibility to public transit and multi-modal transportation (as alternatives to owning an automobile)
    • Workforce training, financial literacy, and economic mobility as paths to self-sufficiency

 

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“SIA” PROJECT INVOLVEMENT – 10 FOCUS AREAS

The Social Impact Advisor will be involved in some or all of the following ten (10) necessary processes focus areas in the conceptualization, planning, implementation, and public outreach processes involved in community-impacting, larger-scale real estate development projects:

  1. Community Engagement: Advise on and help manage the community engagement process—often creating a “Community Impact Strategy Plan” (“SISP”) (a step-by-step roadmap for properly involving members of the community from the early conceptual stages of a proposed real estate development project)
  2. Liaison: Act as a liaison with Registered Neighborhood Organizations (“RNOs”), city staff and officials, public agencies, and other local representatives, entities, community leaders, and residents
  3. Neighborhood Assessments: Conduct a “Neighborhood Assessment” to identify and analyze the strengths and challenges of a neighborhood
  4. Community Meetings: Manage a series of community meetings, often conducted in non-conventional ways, times, and places
  5. Charrettes: Plan and facilitate community planning and design charrettes
  6. Funding Sources: Advise on funding strategies, especially non-traditional funding sources and appropriate public-private partnerships, with the objective of help to fill financing gaps to make community benefiting uses and amenities economically feasible
  7. Project Vision: through various advanced visualization and geospatial techniques, work with all project stakeholder to determine a proposed future development project’s shared “Vision”
  8. Website: Oversee and manage the creation of an informational community focused project website
  9. City Departments and Agencies: Act as owner’s re and advocate for a project with city staff and officials—including City Council members, Community Planning and Development (CPD), Department of Economic Development and Opportunity (DEDO), Housing Stability (HOST), Public Works (PW), Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA), Denver Housing Authority (DHA), and other applicable governmental and quasi-governmental entities, and public agencies
  10. Public Communications and PR Throughout the entire project, help ensure accurate and regular communications with the community, city, media/press, and the public.