INSIGHTS
What does nSCALE publish?
Original analysis on development feasibility, community project finance, and design for catalytic projects — written by practitioners actively underwriting and designing the work, drawn from real projects rather than secondary research.
Community Development
What did Marion residents ask for in their new community garden?
On September 21, roughly 10 to 15 people, about five of them Marion, North Carolina residents from outside the project and the rest Healing Roots facilitators and West Marion Inc. staff, spent two and a half hours at the Marion Community Building mapping what a community garden at the West Marion Resilience Hub should do for five groups it will serve: elders, the health clinic, youth and childcare, recreation, and the shared food kitchen and greenhouse. The same pattern surfaced at every station: something residents already do informally on land like this, herbal remedies, flower deliveries to homebound neighbors, backyard composting, turned into a specific program, a doctrine-of-signatures medicinal garden near the clinic, an off-grid emergency kitchen, a plant-family teaching garden for kids, tied to a room in the building. Healing Roots Design ran the session as the project's community engagement partner; landscape architect Equinox Design is now folding the results into the garden's concept design.
Christopher Pettis · Sep 28, 2026
community gardencommunity engagementWest Marion Resilience Hublandscape architecturecharretteNorth Carolina
Should the financial model decide what a community project builds?
The financial model should test a community project's program. It should not choose it. The most common failure in community development is not a project that fails to pencil — it is a project that pencils and serves the wrong need. At the West Marion Resilience Hub, the program came from the community first and the capital stack was built around it.
Christopher Pettis · Sep 16, 2026
mission-driven developmentcommunity engagementresilience hubunderwritingrural developmentWest MarionCommunity Development
How does a community impact project actually get funded?
In three capital campaigns, not one. The first raises tens of thousands of dollars to find out whether the project is real. The second raises hundreds of thousands to make it buildable. Only the third — the one everybody plans for — raises the tens of millions to build it. Organizations fail because they try to run the third campaign first.
Christopher Pettis · Sep 16, 2026
capital campaignpredevelopment capitalcommunity development financefundraisingCDFIfeasibility studyCommunity Development
How can a church develop its land without mortgaging the sanctuary?
The standard advice to a land-rich congregation is that owning the land means you are halfway to a deal. That advice is backwards. A congregation can develop its property without pledging the sanctuary by subdividing the development parcel first, moving it into a separate nonprofit entity, pledging only that land or a ground lease of it, and building a capital stack that keeps the debt small.
Christopher Pettis · Sep 16, 2026
faith-based developmentchurch propertyground leasespecial purpose entityNew Markets Tax Creditnonprofit developmentCommunity Development
What does a $30 million New Markets Tax Credit project actually cost?
On a community facility nSCALE is currently developing, construction and FF&E account for 61% of a roughly $30 million budget. Financing, interest, and New Markets Tax Credit fees account for 19% — nearly one dollar in five, before a single wall goes up. The credit's 39% headline converts to gross equity of 30% and a net benefit of 18.6% of the allocation once fees and reserves are paid.
Christopher Pettis · Sep 16, 2026
New Markets Tax CreditNMTCproject financedevelopment costscapital stackcommunity facilitiesFeasibility
What does a feasibility study actually cost, and what do you get for it?
A feasibility study from a development advisory firm costs between $5,000 and $75,000 depending on depth. nSCALE offers three tiers — a $5,000–$15,000 Level 1 scoping study, a $15,000–$30,000 Level 2 preliminary underwriting, and a $40,000–$75,000 Level 3 full underwriting package — each with a decision point so the client can stop after any one.
Christopher Pettis · Sep 10, 2026
Community Development
How do community development organizations pay for pre-development?
Most community development organizations pay for pre-development through a combination of grants, CDFI pre-development loans, and philanthropic capital — not equity. The key sources are CDBG and HOME funds passed through states and cities, pre-development lending from CDFIs such as LISC and Enterprise, and program-related investments from foundations. Pre-development is the hardest money in the sequence to raise, because it is spent entirely at risk before anyone knows whether the project works.
Christopher Pettis · Sep 8, 2026
Design
What is a resilience hub, and what does it cost to build one?
A resilience hub is a community facility designed to serve as a daily gathering space and an emergency shelter during climate events, power outages, or public health crises. In nSCALE's own cost modeling, hubs run $250–$450 per square foot — more than a standard community center because of backup power, a hardened envelope, and redundant systems. nSCALE designed the West Marion Resilience Hub in Marion, North Carolina.
Christopher Pettis · Sep 5, 2026
Community Development
Why do most church and nonprofit land development projects stall?
Most church and nonprofit land development projects stall not because of money but because of governance — specifically, the gap between the vision the board approved and the technical reality of the site. The project stalls at the point where the organization needs to make a decision it doesn't have the expertise to make, and no one is hired to make it. nSCALE was founded to close that gap.
Christopher Pettis · Sep 1, 2026
Feasibility
How do you evaluate a 27-acre site for a mixed-use community campus?
Evaluating a 27-acre site for a mixed-use community campus requires testing zoning, environmental, utility, and market conditions simultaneously — not sequentially. nSCALE evaluated a 27-acre site in Trotwood, Ohio for the Maranatha Life Campus, completing a partial feasibility study and masterplan that tested what the land allows, what it costs to develop, and what the community needs before committing to a design.
Christopher Pettis · Aug 25, 2026
Community Development
What emerging developers get wrong about their first deal
Emerging developers get their first deal wrong by treating it like a real estate transaction instead of a feasibility test. They buy the site before testing it, hire the architect before underwriting it, and raise money before knowing if the project works. The result is a project that stalls at the first technical question — because no one was hired to answer it.
Christopher Pettis · Aug 20, 2026