Momentus Capital, a community development financial institution (CDFI) comprised of organizations including CDC Small Business Finance and Capital Impact Partners, has announced a significant $50 million investment focused on Metro Atlanta, aiming to bolster local initiatives by 2027.
This investment specifically targets the core counties of Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton, and Gwinnett, with a primary focus on local small business investments, affordable housing, education, healthcare, and other social initiatives.
Out of the total $50 million, $25 million is designated exclusively for capital aimed at supporting small businesses.
Momentus underscores the viability of Metro Atlanta as an investment destination, citing the city’s 1.1 percent annual population growth rate.
Additionally, the city sees over 9,000 small businesses launched each year, contributing to a robust ecosystem of more than 110,000 small businesses.
In addition to economic opportunities, the organization emphasizes the social rationale behind the investment, acknowledging Atlanta’s historical significance as a hub of upward mobility alongside its current social inequalities and escalating housing challenges.
Momentus Capital aims to address these issues by understanding and responding to the interconnected economic and cultural landscape of Atlanta, prioritizing not only the City of Atlanta but also its surrounding counties.
The investment comes after extensive research into the Atlanta market, identifying key needs that the funding can effectively address.
Tommy Lester, the Atlanta market lead for Momentus Capital and a native of Atlanta, explained that the organization evaluated the existing landscape of organizations working in the city to determine how their investment could complement and enhance current efforts.
Particularly, Momentus identified affordable housing and small business development as pressing needs that must be addressed to build stronger communities within the city.
“We really focused on what we could do for providing funds for development — helping people actually build some of the housing that’s needed — but also how we could help support some of the small businesses,” Lester noted.
He emphasized the importance of fostering local business ecosystems, stressing that demanding residents to leave their neighborhoods for shopping and resources burdens them unnecessarily.
Momentus Capital’s investments will empower small businesses that often struggle to secure funding from traditional lenders, effectively filling a funding gap.
Options such as the SBA Community Advantage program offer loans ranging from $30,000 to $350,000 alongside financial counseling to help navigate future opportunities.
The organization employs a more comprehensive evaluation process, placing decreased emphasis on credit scores, thereby enabling access to financing for individuals that legacy investors might overlook.
“Instead of simply relying on credit score, we look at the actual story, we look at community impact, we look at the cash flow, and we are able to make decisions that could be outside the box of other places,” Lester explained.
The investment marks Momentus’s ongoing commitment to Atlanta, following the completion of a nine-month training and mentorship program called EDI, which supported 15 local real estate developers working towards affordable housing initiatives.
According to Lester, participants in the EDI program completed projects that collectively encompassed roughly 700 residential units and 25,000 square feet of commercial space, with a total budget estimated at roughly $190 million.
Notably, nearly half of the proposed units from these developers are earmarked as affordable housing.
However, investing in a historically significant city like Atlanta—experiencing rapid gentrification—comes with its challenges.
Many longtime residents have witnessed previous claims of “investment” transform neighborhood dynamics, leading to displacement through increased property taxes, rent hikes, and eminent domain actions.
Promises of affordable housing have frequently fallen short for low-income families, hindered by obstacles in accessing available programs, or due to affordable housing designations that often prioritize higher-income earners, such as those at 60 or 80 percent of the area median income.
A recent study predicted that nearly 11 percent of single-family homes in the five core Metro Atlanta counties are owned by just three companies.
Moreover, another study from the Atlanta Regional Commission found that seven companies owned more than 50,000 homes in the region, underscoring the concentration of ownership in the housing market.
While investment is essential, awareness of its mixed outcomes is critical.
Momentus Capital recognizes the importance of building trust within the communities it serves, especially among longtime residents and local organizations.
Working closely with the House ATL coalition, Momentus collaborates with other CDFIs and community groups to cultivate an environment of cooperation, aligning their investment focus with the same five core counties prioritized by House ATL.
“We’re a CDFI, so our whole purpose is to put funds into communities; that doesn’t mean people aren’t still wary,” Lester remarked.
He reiterated that Momentus is not purchasing properties but instead aims to place people in positions where they can develop properties and eventually purchase them themselves.
Momentus’s previous investments in Atlanta include small business loans and community development lending, along with business advising aimed at driving local economic growth.
While the $50 million investment by Momentus is a substantial commitment, it represents just a fraction of the financial resources necessary to tackle the breadth of challenges facing the city.
“The $50 million in reality is a drop in the bucket to what’s really needed here in the city; you see single projects that cost more than $50 million,” Lester emphasized.
He acknowledged that while it isn’t a panacea for the city’s myriad issues, the investment can yield impactful social returns.
“The mayor says it all the time: Atlanta is a group project. And that’s really what I feel like this is — we’re just doing our share,” Lester stated.
Together with key organizations such as the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), House ATL, Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE), and the Low Income Investment Fund, Momentus Capital aspires to contribute positively to the overall landscape of investments, fostering collaboration rather than operating in isolation.
For many involved, including Lester, the mission is personal.
Having observed the persistent rise in income inequality and the diminishing affordable housing options within the city, Lester expressed a sense of urgency in his work.
He said, “The thought of people that built the city and built that legacy aren’t able to grow and thrive in the city because there’s so much competition from other places and funding from outside sources, that’s something that I personally struggle with.”
He emphasized that empowering legacy homeowners and long-standing community members is essential to ensuring that the growth of Atlanta benefits those who have historically been part of the city’s fabric rather than displacing them.
Whether Momentus Capital’s $50 million investment will yield tangible benefits for Atlanta’s communities remains to be seen, but the success of their initiative hinges on their commitment to fostering strong connections within the neighborhoods they aim to uplift.
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