Michael Lemanski, Director of Development Finance Initiative (DFI) at the UNC School of Government, was guest speaker at the Charlotte Mastermind Group Meeting. The DFI assists local governments with attracting private investment for transformative redevelopment projects within a city or region. The key to the success of the redevelopment projects, many of which may have been under consideration for 20 or 30 years is DFI’s pre-development research to see how best to align public and private interests, enabling the private investors to see what the public wants and what the market can support, ultimately mitigating many of the financial risks with a project.