As it pitches its vision for a 57-story skyscraper at 115 Federal St., Accordia Partners is giving members of the local minority community a chance to get in on the ground floor.

It’s reached out to local investors who are able to commit as little as $50,000 to a general partnership that would contribute approximately $20 million in equity toward the estimated $550 million tower in the Financial District. The fund has approximately $15 million in commitments so far, said Kirk Sykes, co-manager at Accordia Partners.

“We targeted a group of investors that typically doesn’t have access to this type of project –women and people of color who are qualified – and started at a small increment,” Sykes said. “We didn’t want to exclude the tire shops on Dorchester Avenue or the people who own a graphics firm.”

Accordia is one of six development teams pitching ideas to the Boston Redevelopment Authority for ways to redevelop the 1-acre municipal property at Winthrop Square. The agency has indicated it will pick a developer by the end of the summer.

Accordia proposes 280 hotel rooms, 185 condos and 34,000 square feet of civic and community space including outdoor terraces and a black box theater, a 56th floor observatory and 57th-floor restaurant.

The Accordia Partners venture is led by Sykes, president of New Boston Fund’s Urban Strategies Fund and a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and Richard Galvin, president of CV Properties. CV Properties developed the Aloft and Element hotels on D Street in South Boston, which have a 56 percent minority workforce. As in that project, the developers plan to partner with local non-profit job training organizations to recruit minority employees.

Inclusiveness is central to Accordia’s proposal with opportunities for members of the minority community to invest in the project, help build it and work there after it’s completed. It’s committed to the use of 30 percent women- and minority-owned subcontractors with a potential for $116 million in contracts. Bethesda, Maryland-based Clark Construction, which has topped 50 percent minority participation in major projects, would be the construction manager and leverage its contacts with local subcontractors, Sykes said.

“Only when you have a diverse ownership structure do you get attention paid and people of color involved in these projects,” Sykes said.

City regulations require developers to include at least 13 percent income-restricted units in new residential developments or pay into an inclusionary development fund.

One of Accordia’s competitors for the Winthrop Square project, Boston-based Trinity Financial, has made middle-class housing a central element of its proposal. Trinity would reserve 40 percent of its proposed 645 residential units for households earning 120 percent or less of the area median income.

In contrast, Accordia does not plan any on-site affordable units. That would trigger a $20 million payment to the inclusionary development fund to support an estimated 125 units of affordable housing in the city. One new idea floated by Accordia is a $20 million bond that would provide an ongoing stream of income for affordable housing developments, an idea that it’s discussed with Eastern Bank.

“This is something we’d be working with the city to develop out of whole cloth and we think it’s a creative way to share the love,” Sykes said.

The development team also includes SHoP Architects, Hacin and Assoc. and Ares Management. Ares would contribute the bulk of $200 million in equity toward the project, with the rest financed through debt.