This paper discusses use of the Capital Absorption Framework to understand and strengthen the community investment systems supporting 21 smaller, postindustrial cities in Massachusetts. The Capital and Collaboration project, a partnership of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Harvard Kennedy School and Robin Hacke of the Kresge Foundation, has conducted stakeholder interviews, convened focus groups and gathered data with the goal of understanding the community investment systems of the 21 cities that support or can support large-scale mixed-use and commercial real estate/small-business development.