Today, a Chicago-based community lender laid out a plan to turn Detroit into a regional engine for neighborhood investment, with a deeper push to steer capital into the city’s blocks instead of just its skyline. The strategy centers on expanding lending, buying property and partnering with major philanthropies to back affordable housing, child-care centers and nonprofit real estate projects.
Crain's Detroit first reported the move, noting that the organization wants to treat Detroit as a hub for its broader Midwest footprint while significantly scaling up its lending and real estate activity. The coverage frames the shift as a concentrated bet that funneling more capital into neighborhood-level projects can strengthen long-term community anchors.
The lender is IFF, a Chicago-headquartered certified community development financial institution whose new CEO, Kirby Burkholder, took over on Jan. 1. According to IFF, Burkholder moved to Detroit in 2013 and helped build out the local office, giving the organization more than a decade of experience with Michigan projects. That track record is a big part of why IFF now argues Detroit is ready to serve as a regional center for mission-driven capital.
How IFF Is Already Investing
IFF has already been active in Detroit, with work that ranges from early-childhood facilities to nonprofit real estate and technical assistance for community-based organizations. Its Stronger ECE Spaces program, run by IFF with support from JPMorgan Chase, helps child-care providers upgrade and stabilize their facilities while tapping into financing that is often hard to get in disinvested neighborhoods.
As Common Ground reports, the program blends hands-on technical assistance with capital, an approach designed to make projects financially viable in places that typically struggle to attract conventional bank lending.
Where The Money Comes From
IFF and other CDFIs working in Michigan lean on a layered financing toolkit that combines loans, New Markets Tax Credits and philanthropic dollars to move complex projects across the finish line. Members of the Michigan CDFI Coalition were awarded a combined $310 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocations in January 2026, a pot of capital that helps community lenders stack different funding sources for neighborhood projects, according to the Michigan CDFI Coalition. IFF says that kind of layered approach will be central to its push to scale up investment in Detroit neighborhoods.
What It Could Mean For Neighborhoods
"Putting our money where our mouth is means we’re going to buy land in Detroit and own real estate in Detroit," Burkholder said in a Q&A about IFF’s Detroit strategy. In an interview with the Kresge Foundation, he walked through how IFF layers grants, tax credits and loans to get deals done that might otherwise stall out.
If the plan unfolds as described, IFF says Detroit could see a notable uptick in mission-driven capital flowing into housing, child care and nonprofit facilities, particularly in neighborhoods that have long had trouble attracting traditional bank lending. For residents, that could eventually translate into more stable child-care centers, new or rehabbed apartments and stronger nonprofit hubs woven into the everyday fabric of the city’s blocks.
