A Community Investment Vehicle uses the civic assets of vacant land and closed schools in the communities of Washington Park, Woodlawn, South Shore, and Grand Crossing as tools to build community and individual wealth for local residents and neighborhoods. A significant part of this land portfolio is imagined to be owned and managed through the development of a neighborhood scale Community Investment Vehicle (CIV) that centers the equity participation of local and Black residents and businesses through ownership, governance, and engagement at all stages of planning. With the goals of creating monetary value for local individuals and the community, the development process of the CIV includes a neighborhood real estate assessment, a socio-cultural-economic neighborhood assessment, financial modeling, neighbor and investor engagement, and an inclusive economic development and impact assessment. Through engagement with multiple community sectors, the process will inform a shared neighborhood vision that centers inclusive ownership and wealth building. The first form of engagement that we developed is a South Side Community Wealth Building game, a play on classic Monopoly in which players work collaboratively to learn about the benefits of a CIV.

urbanAC is a core partner in developing the Community Investment Vehicle framework. In addition to overall research and strategy, we are contributing a vacant land inventory, a development capacity and program test fit, urban design direction, demographic and resident profile analysis, and the participation and engagement strategy.