Services

EDAC engages in technical assistance, grantsmanship, strategic planning assignments and evaluations for government agencies, philanthropic institutions, private firms and community development entities.

Client organizations include:

Economic Development Consulting

EDAC provides consulting services to CDCs, governmental agencies, foundations, financial institutions and small business ventures in the following areas:

• Governmental grantsmanship
• EB-5 financing
• Business incubator development/feasibility studies
• CDFI, CDCU and CDE formation and capitalization
• Bank strategic planning for community development lending
• Base closing-related economic development strategies
• Regional economic development: strategic planning for local collaboratives, governmental agencies and port authorities
• Neighborhood master planning activities
• Retail area revitalization strategies
• Employment and training initiatives
• Development and business finance
• Technical assistance to micro-equity and micro-loan programs
• Charter school linkages with CBOs
• Transitioning from housing to business support services
• Securitization for loan funds
• Transit-oriented development
• Logistics linkages
• Programmatic innovation and evaluation

Grantsmanship

EDAC has specialized in assisting clients with federal grant applications for over 30 years.

Clients regularly receive 6-7 figure awards for projects that include:

Feasibility Study Oversight

EDAC works with a number of national specialists with experience in analyzing demographics and market demand frequently required by public market developers, supermarket chains, developers and national retailers.

EDAC specialists have also conducted symposia, training presentations and the preparation of handbooks with respect to the conduct of such market studies and the recruitment/contracting with such specialists.

Please see the attached item for a sampling of market evaluation considerations.

Funding Assessment

EDAC teams are frequently contracted to assess the viability of a project concept and its potential capability of attracting finance from federal, philanthropic and local sources (e.g. manufacturing incubators, food hubs, food markets, retail revitalization concepts and social enterprises)

In a number of instances, successfully funded projects may lose an anchor business or a previously committed funder. EDAC has extensive experience in locating and refining project approaches while assisting clients in pursuing replacement project elements and supplemental sources of capital.

Public/Private Partnership Formation

EDAC has extensive experience in assisting collaborations in various industry sectors or for place-based strategies seeking to maximize funding resources for job creation and innovations for training of targeted populations.

Strategic Planning

Our specialists have an extensive track record in working with foundations, local governments and neighborhood revitalization proponents in contemplating multi-phased strategies and investments to catalyze the rebuilding of retail nodes, manufacturing corridors and food-related districts for communities throughout the United States and the Caribbean.

Technical Assistance

For decades EDAC teams have been regularly retained by federal agencies to assess challenges encountered by business or real estate undertakings of grantees and to recommend remedies to venture obstacles which threaten the successful implementation of the funded endeavor.

EDAC’s field experts have decades of specializing in hands-on project design, development and implementation. While our public policy scholars and authors have designed initiatives for various federal agencies and foundations, we take particular pride in the fact that our experienced personnel understand the nuances of real estate development, market study preparation, business plan crafting and collaborating with the diverse participants essential to the venture development and real estate completion processes.

A number of clients, similarly, request EDAC advice with respect to government reports, contracts, regulatory requirements and the contractual elements involved in retaining contractors and subcontractors, construction management specialists, joint venture partners and related service providers.

EDAC analysts are frequently retained to assess emerging markets, business trends and innovations impacting project viability determinations.