African leadership Group’s own Solomon Muwanga will be one of the panelists featured during a Urban Land Institute workshop Feb. 16 titled “Equitable Access to Capital: Real Estate Development By All, for All.”
The event will be held over Zoom, and ALG members can attend for the discounted rate of $10. ALG is acting as an event sponsor.
“How would the world be different if there were equitable access to capital?,” is the question posed by promotional materials for the event. “If developers of color could gain access to sufficient capital to serve their communities? What types of homes would get built, where would they be built, who would build them, and what wealth would they generate?”
While other panelists will focus primarily on inequities in the residential housing market, Solomon’s presentation will examine the commercial real estate market. As a vice president at MidWestOne Bank, he has extensive, direct experience in this area.
“I am going to provide my experience and viewpoint from the last few years, where I’ve really seen a lack of representation from people from the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) community as successful real estate developers, and the reasons why I think that is the case,” Solomon told ALG.
“It’s not like it’s intentional, but more the basic structure of conventional underwriting that excludes people from this community.”
Solomon serves as chair of ALG’s Business and Economic Opportunity Committee, and said he is pleased to be representing both his bank and ALG on the panel.
“ALG formed the Business and Economic Opportunity Committee with the main purpose of making sure that we put members of our community in a position where they can identify business and economic opportunities, and get help with access to markets as business owners,” Solomon said.
Solomon said the event also provides “a huge networking opportunity,” during which “we can encourage the development community to invest in our community so we can achieve economic success.”
You can register for the event at the discounted $10 rate by following this link: https://colorado.uli.org/events/detail/9A4E7028-FF3C-4E77-894E-94DB47F5FD0F/. For the discount, use the code ULIpartner22 at checkout.
The other panelists are:
- Jennie Rogers, Enterprise’s Equitable Path Forward Growth Fund
- James Johnson, Community Investment Trust for Solid Rock Community Development Corporation
- Jamie Gomez, Colorado Housing and Finance Authority
- Justin Gilmore, Gilmore Construction Corporation
