Beacon Center

Joint Venture in Washington DC

Beacon Center is a joint venture (JV) project between the Emory United Methodist Church’s development arm, The Emory Beacon of Light, and The Community Builders. The JV hired Ellisdale Construction as the general contractor to demolish portions of a church in the Brightwood neighborhood of DC and build a 99-unit affordable housing project located at 6100 Georgia Avenue, NW. Ellisdale Construction hired a consultant group, Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures (NREUV) to perform compliance consulting services for the project and ensure that First Source Law and Agreement requirements, among others, were met. NREUV successfully assisted subcontractors in hiring 28 District residents on the project, resulting in a 90% DC new hire rate. The project achieved the result through Project Community Capital, the workforce development program group of NREUV, by holding job fairs in Ward 4 and conducting interviews over a three day period. More than 100 people were interviewed for available positions on the project. In addition, NREUV boldly included requirements in their contract that the developer hire at least 30 District residents during the project.