64 Business View Magazine - September 2016
funds from a combination of sources, including federal
CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) monies,
and loans from a Community Development Financial
Institution (CFDI). (CDFIs are private financial insti-
tutions that are 100 percent dedicated to delivering
responsible, affordable lending to help low-income,
low-wealth, and other disadvantaged people and com-
munities join the economic mainstream.) “We’ve found
a CDFI, and it’s working up a proposal for us,” he says.
“Then the city will put up some money and we’ll have
a revolving loan fund of, hopefully, a couple of million
dollars. We’ll be able to use that for some small busi-
nesses and some revitalization. Downtown is already a
very attractive place. It’s a nice place to walk around;
there’s great landscaping and old buildings. We want
to build on what we already have.”
While redevelopment funding is being sought, oth-
er events are already re-shaping the city’s footprint.
“Austin Peay State University, which has got 10,000
students, just recently bought seven million dollars of
property, downtown,” Lampkin reports. “It was a car
