One Neighborhood Builders’ year of success, with Peter Chapman, new President/CEO going forward

One Neighborhood Builders (ONB), a nonprofit affordable housing and community development organization announced its new President and CEO while noting their accomplishments for 2024.

New Leadership

Peter H. Chapman will serve in the leadership position, bringing over 20 years of executive leadership experience building vibrant communities that strengthen regional economies. He will join the organization on February 3, 2025.

“Peter’s extensive experience leading high-impact housing and redevelopment projects and securing financial investments for complex community and economic development initiatives make him an ideal leader for ONB,” said Lorraine Lalli, chair of ONB’s Board of Directors and associate dean of student life and operations at Roger Williams University School of Law. “We sought a visionary leader who will champion our strategic approach and advance our ambitious housing development pipeline at a pivotal time for housing and community development organizations – and we found that in Peter.”

Chapman’s appointment concludes a national search led by ONB’s Board of Directors with the assistance of Bridge Partners Executive Search that began in August 2024 when ONB’s former president and CEO, Jennifer Hawkins, announced her departure after nearly a decade successfully leading the organization.

Chapman is an accomplished community and economic development leader and strategist who has leveraged billions in investments in several major U.S. cities and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He has a successful track record of conceptualizing and implementing large-scale, comprehensive, mixed-income residential and economic revitalization initiatives and taking on leadership roles within organizations operating in complex markets.

“There is incredible potential for One Neighborhood Builders to make an even more significant impact in Rhode Island and I am excited about this opportunity,” said Chapman. “I am impressed with the quality of the organization’s initiatives and its ability to adapt and evolve into one of New England’s leading housing development institutions, as well as the commitment to excellence demonstrated by the board and team.”

Most recently, for six years, Chapman served as the CEO of the UVI Research & Technology Park Corporation, a public-private economic development agency and independent affiliate of the University of the Virgin Islands. Under Chapman’s leadership, the organization grew dramatically, increasing revenues by more than 250% and launching new initiatives such as Tech Village in St. Croix, a more than $40 million mixed-use development that incorporates workforce- and market-rate housing and research and development space. In 2020, the corporation received the International Economic Development Council (IEDC)’s prestigious Economic Development Organization of the Year award, the highest honor bestowed upon economic development organizations by IEDC. Chapman also operationalized The Virgin Islands Catalyst Fund, a revolving loan fund to incentivize projects of scale in the Virgin Islands and facilitate the expansion of technology and knowledge-based businesses.

Chapman began his professional career in New England at the Boston-based Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations and the Madison Park Development Corporation. As an Urban Land Institute (ULI) urban fellow in Colorado, Chapman designed and helped implement the Real Estate Diversity Initiative Program, which is now a national ULI capacity-building module for emerging women and minority real estate developers. He is the Founder and CEO of Urban Policy Innovations, a national consulting practice that advises nonprofit community and economic development institutions, civic and philanthropic organizations, and public agencies on strategies and programs designed to increase the stock of affordable and workforce housing and strengthen and diversify local and regional economies.

Previously, Chapman was also executive vice president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation in Detroit, MI; deputy chief administrative officer/deputy mayor for economic development & planning for the City of Richmond, VA; the architect and founding executive director of a community development financial institution in Colorado; and the economic development portfolio chief and policy director for the Mayor of Denver, CO, where he helped spearhead two nationally-recognized catalytic revitalization projects: the Mariposa Transit Oriented Development Initiative under the federal Choice Neighborhoods program and the Uptown Redevelopment under the HOPE VI program. During his tenure with Cambridge, MA-based global consulting firm Abt Associates (now Abt Global), he was the lead author and researcher of one of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s early comprehensive case studies on public housing redevelopment, “Exploring the Impacts of the HOPE VI Program on Surrounding Neighborhoods.”

Chapman received a master’s in public policy with a concentration in macroeconomics and urban planning from Tufts University and his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University. He also completed graduate studies in real estate finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He currently serves as vice chair of the Center for Creative Partnerships’ Board of Directors in South Carolina and is an advisory board member of Washington, DC-based Renaissance Equity Partners.

Accomplishments in 2024 for One Neighborhood

Growing rapidly, the group now says they are building more affordable housing than ever before, with developing over 600 affordable homes with an additional 350 under construction or in the planning states of construction.

In addition, over 1,000 Rhode Islanders now reside in their apartments and have received individualized assistance to meet their needs. 

In April 2024, they completed the Residences at Riverside Square in East Providence, a mix of 16 one- and two-bedroom apartments for extremely low- to moderate-income households, with several of the units reserved for youth aging out of foster care in a partnership with Foster Forward.

In June, they began construction of The Avenue, an 85-unit development that will add 39 new-construction apartments on Atwells Avenue, on Federal Hill, and enable the renovation of 46 apartments in the Elmwood neighborhood of Providence. 

In November, the state passed a $120 million bond referendum to bolster affordable housing production and preservation, an initiative the agency advocated for.

Looking forward

ONB will continue to implement its five-year strategic plan, Our Homes, Our Health, Our Future, released in 2023. This strategic framework cements ONB’s goals to build and manage high-quality, affordable housing statewide, invest in comprehensive community development in Central Providence, and to advocate for changes in policy and practice that advance its mission.

ONB currently has six developments in its construction portfolio that represent over $183 million in community investment and will add over 350 rental apartments and homeownership opportunities to its current portfolio of 460 owned and operated rental units.

This spring, ONB will begin construction on Broad Street Homes, a 44-unit affordable housing development in Central Falls, the organization’s first in the city, and on the first phase of Center City Apartments, a 144-unit affordable housing development in East Providence, ONB’s largest to date. ONB has three additional affordable housing initiatives in pre-development including Sheridan Village in Providence, Steeple & Stone in Cumberland, and Del Toro in Providence.

ONB oversees the place-based, collective impact initiative focused on the nine neighborhoods that make up Central Providence, and the Central Providence Opportunities: A Health Equity Zone (CPO-HEZ), part of the RI Department of Health’s Health Equity Zone (HEZ) Initiative.

ABOUT ONE NEIGHBORHOOD BUILDERS: 

 One Neighborhood Builders (ONB) is a nonprofit community development leader that improves lives across Rhode Island by building homes and connecting communities. They use their more than 35 years of practical experience in the housing and community development fields to test new ideas and challenge entrenched systems. Since its founding, ONB has developed over 480 affordable rental apartments, 140 homeownership opportunities, and 45,000 square feet of community and commercial space, reflecting over $145 million of community investments. ONB is the convening entity of Central Providence Opportunities: A Health Equity Zone (CPO-HEZ), a place-based collective impact initiative of more than 60 stakeholders across the nine neighborhoods of Central Providence. CPO-HEZ advances the shared vision for greater health and economic equity in the 02908 and 02909 ZIP codes.