These small developers have big hopes for their Fort Worth neighborhoods
James Walker has multiple developments in the south side, but he was seeking more support to create homes and invest in the community.
Then he learned about the Community Developers Roundtable, which works to provide capital and resources to smaller developers in North Texas.
Community Developers Roundtable connected Walker, co-founder of Alpha Family Group, LLC, and his business partner, Thomas Oliver, to people who helped identify what was missing in their business and to fill in those gaps to make their business strong. Walker said the program helped him improve his financial qualifications for lenders and navigate the city permit process.
“I think it really ricochets you to another level,” Walker said.
Maggie Parker launched the Community Developers Roundtable program in 2022 to help developers gain access to capital and support them in creating affordable housing and revitalizing neighborhoods.
Parker was a lender and the founder of Innovan Neighborhoods, a real estate development company in Dallas. She saw the lack of access many developers in underserved communities face, and she had a central question: How to support developers who are already doing the work in their neighborhoods and help them grow their businesses and their impact.
“For us to really see neighborhoods change, we need them to be successful, and we need them to grow their impact, and there are so many communities across the Metroplex that there are all these little pockets that kind of just need that incremental work over time,” Parker said.
The roundtable can help in various ways, from covering training costs to connecting developers with Community Development Financial Institutions that match lenders with small business owners, or matching participants with financial consultants.
The roundtable has helped three cohorts of 31 developers in Dallas-Fort Worth since 2022. Its first Dallas cohort produced 168 housing units (142 of which are affordable), 12,000 square feet of commercial space and $2.3 million in new capital directly into the community, according to an impact report.
This year marks the first in Fort Worth, with nine members who started in October and meet monthly. Participants have projects spanning multiple neighborhoods, including Morningside, Polytechnic and Historic South Side.
On June 3, the initiative wrapped up its cohort by riding in two buses to see each developer’s projects while learning about other upcoming developments in the city from the Fort Worth Community Land Trust, the National Juneteenth Museum and the Evans and Rosedale Development.
To be eligible for the initiative, developers submitted a general application, in which they discussed their projects, their commitment to their neighborhood, and the projects they have completed or are in the works. Developers then conduct financial reviews to determine whether they are bankable, and then complete an interview with a panel of program partners and alumni.
Parker says she plans to have another cohort in Fort Worth next year.
Terence Walker is a part of Fort Worth’s cohort and founder of the Precise Home. On June 3, he showed the home he developed on Stella Street in Historic Southside. Walker, like others in the cohort, wants to help empower the community through his developments by providing jobs for locals, building relationships and investing in the neighborhood.
“I get caught in my own bubble doing what I do on a day-to-day basis, and I don’t have anyone to shine a flashlight on my cracks and what I’m missing,” Walker said. “So if I’m not aware of it, it falls between the cracks, but the CDR has allowed me to see what I’m missing, and I’ve been able to meet people to help me fill in my gaps and make my business stronger.”
