Bridge Loan

After the Flint water crisis in 2014, the last two major grocery stores left the city’s north side, leaving the community without healthy food at the moment it was needed most. Residents decided to open a new grocery store — one that was by and for the community.

The North Flint Reinvestment Corporation, a place-based nonprofit led by Flint-native Pastor Reginald Flynn, raised over $7 million to finance the North Flint Food Market. It will operate as a co-op with residents and other local stakeholder becoming co-owners of their local grocery store. Our Fair Food Fund was part of the capital stack providing a critical bridge loan in April 2021 that helped cover transaction costs, which can be a common hurdle especially for community-based developers that lack deep balance sheets to prepay such hefty expenses. Beyond financing, we engaged a member of our Fair Food Fund investment committee, Daniel Tellalian, Founder and CEO of Angel City Advisors, to provide 1:1 support. With expertise in healthy food retail and community development finance, Tellalian served as an embedded thought partner and collaborator with Pastor Flynn over the past five years, tackling the financial plan, brokering connections, and coordinating a complex capital stack.

The North Flint Food Market broke ground in August 2021, revitalizing a long-vacant and obsolete building, with plans to open its door to the community in 2022.