The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission told the Massachusetts Gaming Commission it plans to pivot a Community Mitigation Fund-funded project toward creating a community-based equity fund aimed at increasing access to capital for minority- and women-owned micro and small businesses.

PVPC senior fellow Vanessa Otero summarized a gap analysis PVPC conducted after receiving an August 2023 grant of approximately $485,000 through the Community Mitigation Fund and related EDA support. The analysis found that MGM Springfield has not yet met a $50,000,000 annual local-procurement metric in its host agreement and that, while veteran-owned vendor targets have been met, targets for women- and minority-owned suppliers have consistently fallen short. Otero identified lack of working capital and specialized technical assistance as principal obstacles.

PVPC executive director Kim Robinson said the commission will pursue a capital-absorption study to assess whether a locally managed equity fund is viable, and sketched a concept for a $10,000,000, 10-year closed fund serving minority- and women-owned businesses. Robinson said PVPC is using federal and philanthropic technical-assistance resources to build infrastructure for the fund and stressed that no Community Mitigation Fund dollars would be used to seed the fund itself; grant monies support planning, outreach and feasibility work.

Why it matters: The proposal is a direct response to the procurement gap identified in the host-community agreement and aims to create a financial instrument that could help small and micro businesses scale to meet large anchor-procurement opportunities such as those from MGM.

Questions and next steps: Commissioners asked whether a statewide Commonwealth Bank proposal or existing CDFIs like Common Capital were being tracked; PVPC said those options will be evaluated in the capital-absorption study and that workforce-skills and technical-assistance supports will be part of a broader solution. PVPC said it plans at least eight focus groups and community meetings as part of outreach and is in discussions with local foundations and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston for seed and operational funding.