PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A startup dedicated to diversifying Philadelphia’s real estate development was just awarded $450,000 dollars to help further their goal. Leaders say supporting Black developers could be a key to improving issues in the city.
Philadelphia is made up of more than 40% of African-Americans; however, less than 5% of real estate developers are Black.
Additionally, less than 4% of businesses are Black-owned.
“That’s what the Growth Collective is committed to,” said Sandra Dungee Glenn, co-founder of the group of developers, investment professionals, and public policy experts dedicated to bringing more equity to the city through real estate.”
Dungee Glenn was raised in West Philadelphia. She said that over the years, she noticed the growth and prosperity of some neighborhoods, and the opposite for others.
“Emerging two Philadelphias, one where Philadelphia seem to be thriving, and there was a lot of growth in economic, upward, trending,” she said.
“And then the other Philadelphia, which reflected most of Philadelphia’s Black communities, where we saw undervalued housing, poor access to capital, inadequate services, and a declining quality of life, and so we looked at the opportunity to use real estate as a disrupter.”
She said they have a nine-figure goal for helping fund Black-owned development in the city.
“We are committed to raising $100 million in capital to support these Black developers and their projects.”
Dungee Glenn said that’s just one aspect of their two-pronged approach.
“The other arm of our effort…is about the advocacy and organizing for this approach to development, which we call holistic development,” she said.
“Working with policymakers and institutions and our elected officials and others to really change the mindset about development and to change and kind of reorder the priorities and really make an impact, community impact.”
The startup was recently granted a combined $450,000 from two donors, the Knight Foundation and Patricia Kind Family Found.
Knight Foundation Program Director Ellen Hwang says they believe the seed investment could help build a pathway to thriving Philadelphia communities.
“There’s a long history in Philadelphia of erasure of minority communities and the shrinking of the geographic boundaries in which we’re able to live and thrive and benefit from the growth that our city has seen over the last 10-15 years,” Hwang said.
“We want to reverse that trend. We want to see something different. We want people in Philadelphia to really feel like we are hearing them, that they’re part of the growth and the change of Philadelphia and that they can also be contributors and participants in that growth.”
“I’ve also seen the decline in a lot of our neighborhoods, like where I grew up,” Dungee Glenn added.
“We have to set a different direction. Black residents and the Black community has been an integral part of the city, the lifeblood of the city, and should be part of a thriving future for the city. But unless we do something different, and act differently in terms of economic and social growth, development and investment, we’re not going to see that.”
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