Nick Hanauer and others back immigrants' pioneering real estate play in Tukwila
Two of Seattle's leading venture capitalists have invested in an audacious plan by nonprofit Forterra to help immigrants buy a large property in Tukwila, where an international market will house dozens of small businesses facing displacement.
It's part of a broader campaign both in Tukwila and South Seattle, where Forterra is working with the Africatown Community Land Trust on a homeownership program for lower-income families.
Funding will come from Forterra's new Strong Communities Fund, a social impact investment vehicle that venture capitalists Nick Hanauer and Tom Alberg have invested in along with others, including the Russell Family Foundation, credit union BECU, the Seattle Foundation and the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties.
"Our country has lost its ability or willingness to share the gains of our growth to benefit a broad number of people," said Hanauer, an early investor in Amazon.com Inc. and founder of Civic Ventures, which works to effect social change by pushing policies like raising the minimum wage.
Helping people buy real estate now is part the mission.
"If you are not on that bus, then you are being left behind," Hanauer said.
Seattle-based Forterra, which is known for preserving forest and farmlands, has been focusing more and more on preserving urban places and communities that are being displaced by Seattle's inexorable gentrification. Previously, Forterra and others helped Africatown secure an ownership stake in a large development site in Seattle's Central District.
The nonprofit on Wednesday announced the first-round of the Strong Communities Fund closed with a total amount raised of $10.25 million.
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