Jonathan Huck

Main + Elm launched in January 2024 as a real estate project management company. Rising Tide Partners, which got off the ground in 2020, is a regional land recycling nonprofit that acquires and stewards real estate in partnership with communities to help bring their neighborhood plans to life.

Together, we’re putting a new housing production model into practice—one that combines Rising Tide’s community-driven land recycling strategy with our development expertise. The result is a collaborative approach to building and renovating homes throughout Pittsburgh in ways that align with neighborhood goals.

The ultimate vision? To reduce blight, bring more housing online, create healthier communities, and help families build generational wealth .

In April 2024, we joined forces with Rising Tide to rehab seven for-sale units affordable to people earning 80% of the Area Median Income. The homes — now almost all completed and sold — are spread across the city, from Hazelwood to the East Hills. Previously, these properties were abandoned or in serious disrepair.

How Rising Tide’s community-driven land recycling model works

When invited by local community groups, Rising Tide steps in to acquire and take ownership of properties in a neighborhood as part of its broader land recycling strategy. Working alongside those partners, Rising Tide helps determine how properties can best support neighborhood goals—whether that means making repairs on an existing home, preparing a property for commercial redevelopment, or, in this case, creating new opportunities for affordable homeownership. When properties have active tenants, Rising Tide also helps those residents find and move into better units before renovation.

In every neighborhood where it works, the organization sets up an LLC in partnership with the local community group to acquire and hold real estate. This structure allows Rising Tide to take on much of the real estate risk in service of the broader community development mission. A local governing board then oversees the LLC, making decisions on what is bought and sold and how it is developed.

“For us, the goal is never just to address one property at a time. It’s to understand how each property fits into a larger neighborhood strategy and coordinate the people and resources needed to move that vision forward,” explained CEO of Rising Tide Diamonte Walker. “The strongest projects come together when neighborhood knowledge and investment are working in the same direction. We’re grateful to our community partners for bringing the vision and local perspective that guide this work, and to the public, philanthropic, and private partners whose investment helps us act on it.”

The complexity behind each property and Main + Elm’s role

While it may sound straightforward, the process is anything but. From sorting out tangled titles to addressing severe physical decay, it takes significant experience just to gain control of a single property.

As the property owner, Rising Tide also assumes considerable financial risk. Acquisition is only the beginning: insurance, taxes, utilities, maintenance, legal work, environmental testing, and other holding costs can accumulate for months or even years before a property is ready for redevelopment. And because many of these properties have complicated histories and uncertain timelines, it takes time to make the numbers work.

Once Rising Tide and its community partners determine a property’s future, the challenge becomes turning that plan into a financially viable development.

That’s where we come in at Main + Elm.

“Our role is to manage the properties through financing and construction, all the way to the final sale,” said Shivam Mathur, our Senior Project Manager. “Think of us as the extended capacity for the organization we are working with.”

Making the numbers work

And that support is critical, because securing funding for affordable homeownership projects is another complex piece of the puzzle.

We estimate that each affordable or attainable unit requires approximately $200,000 to $300,000 in subsidy to build. This funding typically comes from a mix of public sources, federal tax incentives, and other affordable housing financing tools, including the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh (URA), the Federal Home Loan Bank, New Markets Tax Credits, the PA Housing Finance Agency, and others.

It’s a process that can take 12 to 24 months before construction even begins, sometimes even longer. For this project, we secured $1.5 million from the URA’s OwnPGH Construction Grant Program (funded through the American Rescue Plan Act), along with a $900,000 loan from Dollar Bank, and funding from Pittsburgh’s affordable housing bond—all within a record-breaking eight-month timeframe, thanks to swift action from both partners.

Mathur noted that these projects are often more complex than market-rate development, which is why finding lenders like Dollar Bank who understand the process and vision is key.

“In today’s rising-cost environment, creating affordable housing requires creativity and collaboration, often involving multiple layers of public and private funding,” explained Rebecca Yago, Senior Vice President of Commercial Real Estate and Lending at Dollar Bank. “Dollar Bank’s philosophy is grounded in being a relationship-focused, locally rooted lender. We take the time to understand each project, each neighborhood, and the specific requirements tied to different funding sources. This allows us to structure financing solutions that support the developer’s vision rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.”

It’s equally important to find builders who understand the realities of affordable development and can execute within tight budgets and timelines. For this project, we partnered with Shape Development Group, which has a long track record in this area.

Opening the door to first-time buyers

Once the construction of the seven homes was completed, the focus turned to connecting them with the right buyers. We worked with local realtors—including Mary Hester of LifeVenture Buy Choice Homes and Deanna Davis of Keller Williams—who specialize in guiding first-time homeowners through the process.

Many of the prospective buyers participated in homeownership training through organizations like Catapult Greater Pittsburgh, equipping them to navigate the responsibilities of homeownership and protect their investment over time. For most, this is about more than purchasing a home—it’s about building equity that can carry forward to the next generation.

“Homeownership can be challenging to achieve for many working-class families due to the rising cost of housing and high barriers to homeownership, such as down payments and closing costs,” explained Quianna Wasler, Chief Housing Officer at the URA. “Building homes for low-and moderate-income earners creates generational wealth and support for their families, and it builds strong, stable, and diverse communities.”

A model built on collaboration

For all of us at Main + Elm and Rising Tide, the seven homes demonstrate what becomes possible when land recycling strategy and development expertise work in tandem. Rising Tide and its community partners can identify, acquire, and hold properties that communities want to see put back into productive use. We can then bring the affordable financing and development expertise needed to move those properties through construction and toward eventual ownership.

It’s an approach we hope to scale across Pittsburgh. What’s critical, we believe, is bringing together the right players and shifting away from a competitive mindset where everyone is fighting for a piece of the pie toward one that grows the pie for everyone involved.

“One of the most meaningful outcomes of this work is seeing underutilized and long-neglected housing transformed into safe, attractive homes that give first-time buyers a genuine sense of pride and stability,” shared Yago. “Projects like this demonstrate what is possible when developers, community partners, and mission-driven financial institutions work together.”