Client Spotlight: SOAC San Jose

“The only way to ensure community assets stay in the hands of the community is by making big moves like this. Getting into the real estate game and activating this space for the community… we’re able to demonstrate to our partners that we can dream big and that we can get it across the finish line.” 

– Jessica Paz-Cedillos, Co-Executive Director of the School of Arts and Culture

 The threat of displacement in East San Jose neighborhoods is all too real. But a local nonprofit, the School of Arts and Culture (SOAC) at the Mexican Heritage Plaza (La Plaza), is reimagining space and creative place-keeping in their community.

With a vision to boost economic vitality, expand cultural programming and bring much needed services to the community, SOAC is acquiring and transforming a mostly vacant line of storefronts right across the street from La Plaza’s main facility.

This phase of their larger project will include a 200-seat indoor theater, a cafe and a health and wellness center run by a community partner.

Community Vision’s Real Estate Solutions team is proud to have worked with SOAC to explore the feasibility for purchasing and activating this valuable community asset. 

Learn more about SOAC and the vision they have for their community.

Client Spotlight: BCZ Oakland

 “This lot is an example of what happened to our community. A once useful and vibrant space became overgrown with weeds and was a dumping ground. Now, as Liberation Park, this is a space where local residents are standing up and taking ownership of the assets in their community.” – Carolyn Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, Black Cultural Zone

The East Oakland Black Cultural Zone Collaborative (the Collaborative) was formed in 2014 by a group of East Oakland community partners and is a community-driven solution to decades of disinvestment and displacement in East Oakland neighborhoods.

Designating 50 square blocks from High Street to the San Leandro border as the Black Cultural Zone, the Collaborative’s goal is to develop a hub where residents and small businesses are empowered to build and circulate wealth in their community. To advance this goal, the Collaborative incorporated its real estate entity, the Black Cultural Zone Community Development Corporation (BCZ) in 2019.

Community Vision began its partnership with BCZ by supporting the Eastside Arts Alliance, one of the founders of BCZ. The partnership included providing resources for the organization to conduct land assessments and strengthen the financial capacity to form BCZ.

In 2019, Community Vision awarded BCZ a grant for a site characterization study, which allowed them to build a strong case for the hub among various stakeholder groups and agencies. BCZ also received technical assistance from our consulting team.

In March 2020, BCZ received a license from the City of Oakland to operate a 1.2 acre lot at the corner of 73rd Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. A year later, the Oakland City Council unanimously approved BCZ for site control of the lot, a major achievement towards the goal of cooperative ownership and management of a mixed-use hub space for retail and affordable housing.

Today, the lot has been transformed into a community space and opened to the public as Liberation Park. There, BCZ hosts food distributions, movie nights and the AKOMA Outdoor Market.  In July 2021, they opened California’s only outdoor wood floor roller skate rink.

“The ultimate goal is community ownership of this space, ownership of affordable housing, commercial space, and creative space. We’re on this previously abandoned 1.2 acres, showing that we can do this, we can thrive and live joyfully,” said Carolyn Johnson, BCZ’s CEO and an East Oakland local with 30 years of experience in commercial and community development.

Next phases include the creation of Liberation Park Market Hall and Residences. The Market Hall  will be an approximately 25,000 square foot development with events, market and food spaces, a wellness area, outdoor event and community spaces, theater and cultural performance space, a rooftop garden and co-working and classroom space.

This project is expected to create 45 permanent jobs, 20 live-work apartments and, in the Residences, 120 units of affordable housing. Black Cultural Zone and Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST) will form a new LLC and enter into a 99-year ground lease with the City of Oakland. In January of 2022, BCZ was awarded a $553,000 grant from Performing Arts Acquisition Fund to support the project. The fund was administered by Community Vision and funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation‘s Performing Arts Program.

“There aren’t a lot of developers that are like Carolyn Johnson,” said Amanda Bornstein, one of Community Vision’s Real Estate Consultants.

“She is from this neighborhood and has spent years organizing with the community and other local leaders, to build the Black Cultural Zone Hub. Community Vision is honored to provide our real estate services and guidance on this project that is a powerful example of what communities around the country can do.”

Client spotlight: ArtEsteem Oakland

I worked with Amana as a consultant on this project and remain a member of the organization's advisory board.

“For me, it is fundamental for AHC to remain in Oakland and continue the vision of my parents. Given the destructive history of urban redevelopment through the practices of redlining, marginalization and oppression, the work to repair the harm that has been done needs to be an essential priority in rebuilding our communities. Building the Center for ArtEsteem creates a bright path like the Sankofa bird Adinkra symbol that cleanses our past as we build a benevolent future.”    

– Amana Harris, Executive Director of Center for ArtEsteem

The Center for ArtEsteem, a division of AHC Oakland, is a Black-led, community-based nonprofit that empowers individuals to be self-aware and inspired through art, creativity and education. They help equip people to make positive choices to break the cycle of violence for themselves and their communities. 

 Since 1989, the organization has provided integrated arts education, racial healing circles, leadership training, public art installation and workforce development in Oakland and the larger Bay Area. They have served dozens of at-risk schools and surrounding communities, reaching thousands of children, youth and families. 

To ensure their ongoing presence in support of the local community, the nonprofit is in the process of acquiring and transforming 5,000 square feet of land and property in West Oakland. Their plan is to build a new Center for ArtEsteem, a community asset that will include new studio, exhibition and community event spaces. 

Community Vision is honored to have partnered with The Center for ArtEsteem to provide real estate and financial management consults for this project as well as a $150,000 loan through our Bay Area Racial Equity Fund (BayREF)program. 

 

CalCORE 3

 Community development groups from across the state gathered in Fresno, California from February 21-23 for our latest CalCORE convening. An initiative developed by Community Vision and Genesis LA, CalCORE works to advance locally owned and controlled real estate through virtual and in-person educational sessions, along with one-on-one project support, for developers of color deeply rooted in their communities.

The three-day event in Fresno marked the final gathering for CalCORE’s third cohort of emergent community-based real estate entities. CalCORE III focuses on acquiring and operating naturally occurring small-site housing developments, as well as preparation for the state-run Foreclosure Intervention Housing Preservation Program.

With a strong emphasis on collaboration, the convening’s activities ranged from workshops and participant share-outs to networking sessions and site tours. Through these opportunities for peer mentoring and mutual learning, participant organizations shared their wins, challenges and knowledge gained through their various projects and areas of focus—from tiny home clusters in Fresno to preliminary work around environmental resilience concepts in Los Angeles.

Another highlight was the tour of multiple affordable housing projects spearheaded by current and former CalCORE participants Lowell Community Development Corporation, Southwest Fresno Development Corporation and South Tower Community Land Trust. These visits provided invaluable insights and inspiration, showcasing tangible examples of community-driven development in action.

We want to extend a special thank you to Vision View, a Community Vision client, for serving as the main venue for the event. Founded by Laneesha Senegal, Vision View has evolved into one of the largest and most comprehensive entrepreneurship centers in the Central Valley. By holding the event in this space, the convening directly supported over seven BIPOC-led small businesses, aligning with CalCORE’s commitment to community empowerment.

 Finally, we offer our gratitude to all the participants, partners and presenters for their time, energy and engagement. Thank you also to CalCORE’s sponsors, Northern California Grantmakers, The California Endowment, The James Irvine Foundation and JPMorgan Chase for helping to make this program possible. 

 

Learn more about CalCORE III participants:

• East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EBPREC) – Oakland
• East Palo Alto Community Alliance Neighborhood Development Organization (EPACANDO) – East Palo Alto
• Eastwest Community Services – Oakland
• Logan Heights Community Development Corporation – San Diego
• Lowell Community Development Corporation – Fresno
• Mammoth Lakes Housing – Mammoth Lakes
• Neighborhood Housing Services of the Inland Empire – San Bernardino and Riverside Counties
• Neighborworks Sacramento – Sacramento
• Pacoima Beautiful – Los Angeles
• Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services — Richmond

CalCORE 2 + 3

In June 2022 Community Vision and Genesis LA held a three-day convening for our California Community-Owned Real Estate (CalCORE) program. 🎉

Twenty-one nonprofit organizations from across California joined us in LA for mutual learning and networking opportunities, a full day of training and speakers on community development and financing at Art Share L.A. and more. We also had the chance to tour local developments, including Little Tokyo Service Center, Latinx with Plants, Las Fotos Project and Inclusive Action for the City.

Thank you to all of our partners supporting this program and to everyone who participated and presented at the convening! Congratulations to our CalCORE 2 participants on their journey in advancing hashtag#CommunityOwnership of community assets. Our newest cohort, CalCORE 3, will focus on small site affordable housing preservation and preparation for the state-run Foreclosure Intervention Housing Preservation Program (FIHPP).

Read more highlights from the convening: https://lnkd.in/gKDtGCDJ

Image # 1: Group photo of CalCORE participants and Community Vision and Genesis LA staff

Small Business Anti-displacement Network Conference

 In November 2023, I presented on a panel for the Small Business Anti-displacement Network Conference in Maryland.

I co presented with Community Vision's president, Catherine Howard on the panel: “The Missing $326 Billion: Building Opportunity by Regaining Land Control.” We were joined by Rudy Espinoza from Inclusive Action for the City and Bibiana Stevens from City First Enterprises. 

We cannot talk about wealth- and power-building opportunities for BIPOC-owned businesses without talking about land loss and its antidote — land control. For example, between 1920 and 1997 the compounded value of Black agricultural land loss is estimated to be $326 billion. 

The panelists discussed how their organizations define land control, report on innovative models of land control they are seeing in their regions, and walk through some of the most promising financing strategies for achieving land control.

2024 West Coast Urban District Forum

 In March 2023, I co-presented on a panel with Justin Smith, MBA, Assoc. DBIA, LEED AP of Relequity, and Elliot Batch of the Downtown Fresno Partnership about democratizing and accelerating infill housing and other urban development at the 2024 West Coast Urban District Forum. 

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Housing Panel at NPH

In October 2022, I participated on a panel for the Nonprofit Housing conference in San Francisco.

The Commercial Spaces in Affordable Housing Communities: A Tool for Expanding Equity and Cultural Placemaking workshop will feature case studies, tools, and resources for how developers can further support residents and communities by providing high-quality commercial spaces at below-market rates to

local nonprofits and BIPOC enterprises that serve the community. We will explore case studies along a spectrum—from early feasibility to operational—to discuss how affordable housing developers can effectively partner with these community serving nonprofits and businesses. The workshop will highlight a specific development—Maudelle Miller Shirek and the Healthy Black Families partnership with RCD. We will discuss lessons learned in the planning, financing, and design processes, opportunities for capacity building and technical assistance for these smaller organizations, and the benefits of co-locating for affordable housing residents, the neighborhood, and the long-term stability of these important community organizations. The workshop will feature multiple perspectives—the project manager (developer), community organization (tenant), and project partners (technical assistance provider)—so that attendees will leave inspired and with ideas for how to develop mixed-use buildings that go beyond providing housing to strengthening communities.