Real Estate Expert Dominique Pryor-Anderson Tapped to Lead Community Investment at TREC
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The Real Estate Council continues to show up and show out as a prominent voice in affordable housing and strategic partnership development. TREC Community Investors put its money where its mouth is late last year by naming Dominique Pryor-Anderson as its senior director of community investment.
The hire comes on the heels of TREC’s longtime president and CEO Linda McMahon‘s departure in May to become the first-ever leader of the Dallas Economic Development Corp. Jamee Jolly was hired as McMahon’s successor and is already making her mark on the North Texas real estate landscape.
Pryor-Anderson hails from Tennessee where she’s worked as a Spanish teacher, Realtor, consultant, and public relations executive. She was also executive director at the Tennessee Affordable Housing Coalition and director of strategic partnerships and engagement at The Housing Fund, where she helped establish Nashville’s first Community Land Trust and deployed capital throughout the historic North Nashville community.
There’s no doubt Pryor-Anderson’s expertise will come in handy as TREC continues to be a force for upward mobility through its Dallas Housing Opportunity Fund, plans for launching a Community Land Trust, and guiding business leaders, bankers, and philanthropic organizations to the negotiating table to create more housing options in North Texas.
Launching a Community Land Trust in Dallas
Pryor-Anderson will draw on more than 20 years of experience in equitable real estate development and inclusive community engagement to continue TREC Community Investors’ revitalization efforts in underserved neighborhoods, officials announced in a press release.
“My 20-year career has been vast, but the core of it has been community development in one way or another,” she told CandysDirt.com.
Dallas offers the opportunity for Pryor-Anderson to guide the initiation of a Community Land Trust for the third time. She’s done it before in Nashville and Memphis.
Under the Community Land Trust model, an individual owns a home and the CLT owns the land. A ground lease ties the improvements and the land together, and a low price is locked in initially and at resale, so residents can stay in their communities long-term.
Pryor-Anderson’s experience with CLTs includes governance, fundraising, and capital strategy, skills she’ll bring to the table as Dallas gets ready to start its first citywide program.
“I think anywhere where a Community Land Trust is new, there’s always questions and some confusion,” Pryor-Anderson said. “The education campaign that we’re working on internally and having great partners like Grounded Solutions Network, who is our consultant, is always a great first step. A lack of information is always where opposition comes from. I know Dallas has what it needs to stand this up. We have great community partners and my team is small but mighty, so we definitely have what we need to make it happen.”
What Else Does TREC Do?
For those who aren’t familiar with TREC, it has three “buckets,” Pryor-Anderson explained: the membership, the political action committee, and TREC Community Investors.
“TREC Community Investors started out as a foundation where the members wanted to put money into doing good,” Pryor-Anderson said. “Now my mission is, we’re investing in disinvested communities and energizing neighborhoods. TREC does membership with commercial real estate developers. TREC CI says, ‘Hey members, we have an option for you to put money in good places and do the good work.’ TREC CI operationalizes that gap into community spaces, community benefit, real estate, and things like Community Land Trusts and some residential real estate.”
President and CEO Jamee Jolly said Dallas is at a critical time in its opportunity for growth and equitable development for all residents, and “Dominique’s deep expertise in real estate development, affordable housing, and community development will guide TREC Community Investors in continuing its 30-year mission of helping transform underserved neighborhoods into vibrant communities well into the future.”
“Her passion for empowering community-focused development in diverse and underserved communities makes her the ideal leader to work alongside our community partners and local residents,” Jolly said.
Coffee and Conversations
A huge part of Pryor-Anderson’s job is relationship building. Her husband and daughter temporarily stayed behind in Memphis so the daughter could finish her senior year of high school, so Pryor-Anderson spends a lot of time meeting new friends.
“I do drink a lot of coffee,” she said. “It’s a lot of coffees and lunches and breakfasts. At one point, I think my daughter thought that’s all I did, have lunch and coffee with people. I tell people I do two things at a great level: words and relationships.”
Pryor-Anderson spends a lot of time on LinkedIn and connecting with community partners.
TREC CI is serving as the underwriter for the Dallas Housing Opportunity Fund, a public-private partnership that has invested $30 million to date in affordable housing projects. They’re also working on a catalyst project in Mill City.
“Mill City is a really big focus for us right now, so we want to make sure we’re able to deploy capital into Mill City either through affordable housing real estate, home repair, and other community-focused real estate,” Pryor-Anderson said. “That’s one of our true norths.”
Pryor-Anderson hasn’t forgotten her Nashville roots. She loves listening to Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton but she’s proud to make Texas — and specifically TREC Community Investors — her new home.
“What I’d really like people to know is that TREC as a member organization is amazing to be a part of,” she said. “If there is a nonprofit out there that is interested in real estate, come to the Real Estate 101; sign up for the boot camp. There’s not just capital opportunities or just membership opportunities or just education, but it’s all of those things, and that’s what makes TREC and TREC CI so unique.”
