What does a place-based investment strategy (PBIS) mean for Locus? We believe we must understand the unique challenges of communities we work with to find solutions that advance their unique opportunities.
Last year, we shared our decision to pilot our PBIS approach in Virginia given Locus’ deep roots and history in the Commonwealth. Southern Virginia counties – and the cities of Martinsville and Danville – have historically lacked sufficient access to critical financing and technical assistance. Since then, we’ve conducted market research and countless conversations with key community and economic development stakeholders to identify regional priorities in areas aligned with Locus lending experience – affordable housing, historic preservation and development, mixed use commercial development, food system, and small business.
Locus’ place-based work in Southern Virginia is a structured community engagement process that is designed to identify priority investments and, where possible, to drive more CDFI and community-focused investment into projects, businesses, and organizations. To facilitate this process, Locus hired Natalie Davis, a Southern Virginia native with a robust regional network, as our local Community Market Lead. Natalie’s role will include intentional networking and listening for lending and other opportunities to support development across the region, including working with our lending team and other partners to get deals “investment ready.”
Locus’ efforts are aligned with those of another CDFI, Community Investment Collaborative (CIC), which is bringing microlending and entrepreneurial support to Southern Virginia for the first time. With support from The Danville Regional Foundation and The Harvest Foundation, our two organizations are committed to working together to determine how to bring a continuum of capital to small businesses and development projects across the region – from microloans to larger commercial loans to New Markets Tax Credits. Together, we hope to provide more seamless capital access that enables small businesses to start, grow, and build wealth for themselves and their communities, and we look to working with other public and private sector partners to invest in and advance critical community projects.