Cape Fear Development pitches $2M revolving fund to speed workforce housing; county discusses 10‑year affordability term

Representatives from Cape Fear Development presented a proposal to the commissioners to seed a community investment fund with $2,000,000 from public and private partners to finance workforce housing at lower cost and greater speed than traditional grant‑driven projects.

"We would like to engage community strategic partners ... with the real difference being the cost of that capital," David Mann (speaker 10) said. "Entities like the county, entities like the endowment, and other corporate sponsors within the community step up, support this effort ... and in exchange receive a return, but just a lower return than our typical investor would receive."

Mann described the proposal as a loan‑style commitment (a revolving fund) rather than a grant: county funds would be repaid over time (the presentation described a roughly 10‑year payback period) to create a reusable corpus that could finance further projects.

County staff and commissioners discussed program details and policy choices. Staff described the intended affordability target for projects using the model at roughly 77–79% area median income (staff cited 79% AMI in discussion). The manager and staff emphasized that Cape Fear’s model is not the only possible operator of the fund; the county could replicate the model with other partners to scale production beyond the developer’s initial estimate.

A staff representative clarified how long affordability obligations would remain: under the model discussed, a typical term would be about 10 years, though proposals could be evaluated individually and longer terms might yield different financial returns.

Commissioners generally expressed support for exploring the creative financing approach while raising questions about whether the county’s participation (expedited plan review, fee reductions, priority inspections) might be perceived as putting the county in competition with private developers or as an appropriate incentive to achieve affordability quickly.

Mann and colleagues said Cape Fear’s initial project could produce about 275 units under the proposed model and that the lower cost and shorter timeline were central to the plan’s value proposition.

Ending: Commissioners asked staff to refine contract and program details for consideration at a future meeting; no formal appropriation or contract was approved during the agenda review.