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Neighborhood Development Fund

The Neighborhood Development Fund (NDF) is a development finance program designed to help move high-impact neighborhood projects forward when conventional financing alone is not enough.

NDF supports projects that increase housing, expand homeownership, strengthen neighborhood business districts, reduce blight, encourage walkable and transit-oriented development, and bring investment to underserved and underinvested neighborhoods. The NDF consolidates and increases neighborhood capital funding over previous fiscal years.

What Can NDF Support?

NDF can provide grants, forgivable loans, or repayable loans through two general types of assistance:

    Real Estate Development

    For private developers, CDCs, and community-based organizations advancing real estate development projects.

    Eligible assistance may include:

    • Development gap or last-dollars-in financing needed to close a project funding gap
    • Catalytic funding to help secure or leverage other key financing
    Neighborhood Capacity

    Primarily for Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and similar community-based nonprofit organizations preparing sites for future development.

    Eligible activities may include:

    • Property acquisition
    • Predevelopment activities
    • Demolition
    • Stabilization

    ​Applicants do not need to select a funding category. The One Pipeline intake process will determine the appropriate path based on the applicant, project, and funding needs.

    What Types of Projects Are Prioritized?

    Projects will be evaluated based on:

    • Housing: Creating new housing units to increase housing supply, promoting housing affordability.
    • Homeownership: Creating or preserving owner-occupied housing, including affordable housing opportunities.
    • Market Need: Investing in areas experiencing disinvestment or where subsidy is necessary to make development feasible
    • Neighborhood Business Districts: Strengthening commercial corridors, supporting mixed-use development, reducing vacancy and blight, and improving walkability and placemaking
    • Transit: Improving transit access or supporting transit-oriented development
    • Project Readiness: Site control, financing, approvals, and construction readiness, when applicable
    • Leverage: Ability to attract private, philanthropic, state, federal, or other non-City investment

    Projects must demonstrate an appropriate level of organizational and financial capacity. Development projects are subject to standard underwriting, including review of project feasibility, market conditions, financing, and applicant capacity.

    How to Apply for the Neighborhood Development Fund

     

    Resources

     

    NDF - How to Apply

    The Neighborhood Development Fund is accessed through Cincinnati's One Pipeline, a coordinated process that allows applicants to submit projects for consideration by the City of Cincinnati's Office of Strategic Growth and Cincinnati Development Fund.

    One Pipeline

    The One Pipeline is a coordinated effort between the City of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Development Fund (CDF), and HomeBase Cincinnati to support high-quality development in our neighborhoods by aligning funding opportunities with how developers access them.