The Greater Baton Rouge Business Report, a journal that has covered business in the Baton Rouge area for 35 years, has published a profile of Stonehenge Capital praising the company’s success and the entrepreneurial spirit of its founders, Tom Adamek and Gordon LeBlanc.
When Adamek and LeBlanc started the company in 1999, the term “impact investing” didn’t yet exist. Today Stonehenge is known for this investment philosophy, which focuses on providing capital in underserved areas to provide a social good while also producing a good return for investors.
“We say we operate at the nexus of finance and community development,” Stonehenge Capital President and founder Tom Adamek told the Business Report. “Everything we do, whether it’s historic tax credits, rehabbing historic buildings or new markets, there is always going to be that combination of community development and structured finance.”
For nearly 20 years, Stonehenge has built a strong reputation for investing transformational capital into underserved communities. The article describes some of the projects and communities transformed by Stonehenge, including the ambitious restoration of Birmingham’s iconic Pizitz Building, as well as the renovation of the historic Houma Elementary School building into a senior living complex that offers market-rate and affordable units.
The Business Report attributed much of Stonehenge’s success to its commitment to investing in rural, low-income and geographically underserved areas.
“We fill a financing gap in these projects that cannot get 100% financing in low income communities,” Adamek told the Business Report. “It is true impact investing and for us impact investing generates a good return and social return.” More information about Stonehenge’s impact on local communities is available in the 2018 Community Impact Report.