Our Work
The Development Finance Initiative (DFI) at the UNC School of Government is a group of developers, designers, and experts in the fields of development finance, law, planning, and public engagement that works across the state of North Carolina to create win-win partnerships between local governments and private developers.
Since its founding in 2011, DFI has partnered with more than 75 cities and towns to design and attract investment for development projects that accomplish local goals. Its clients include some of the state’s largest cities as well as its smaller towns. DFI is particularly engaged in North Carolina’s booming metro areas, with five projects now in progress in Greater Charlotte and three in the Raleigh-Durham area. DFI performs a unique pre-development process which includes in-depth market, site, and financial analyses; identification of development partners; and guidance on structuring public-private partnerships. Through this process, local governments create attractive investment opportunities with transformative impacts for their communities.