The 52^nd Street Investment Playbook 

To outline the financial capital needed for a place-based, holistic development initiative in West Philadelphia, the Enterprise Center (TEC), the Philadelphia Equity Alliance (PEA) and the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University have partnered to develop the 52^nd Street Investment Playbook. The early estimated total cost of this Playbook is around $160 million, a holistic investment to regenerate the corridor and incite broader community benefit to minority enterprises, community safety, and community health. TEC seeks a $15 million catalytic investment to continue acquiring, stabilizing and transforming properties into community-serving and wealth-building assets that foster local ownership.

About the Playbook: 

• The Enterprise Center (TEC) is a nonprofit organization that owns and operates a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), a Community Development Corporation (CDC), a Federal Minority Business Development Agency Center (MBDC), and Small Business Investment Company (SBIC). TEC is also the intermediary responsible for managing and executing the Pennsylvania Main Street Program on the 52nd Street Corridor and has engendered momentum within the past 15 months with initiatives including property acquisition. 

• 52^nd Street, a historically Black neighborhood business district and cultural center, is the second densest cluster of retail businesses in West Philadelphia, second only to University City, and an innovation district anchored by UPenn and Drexel.

• The Playbook details five (5) cross-cutting categories and intervention strategies towards a healthy and vibrant commercial corridor that builds and retains community wealth in West Philadelphia: Transformative Real Estate, Business Support, Infrastructure & Public Realm, Community Development, and Housing.   

• The Playbook details program and project-level investments targeted to and matched with federal, state, local, philanthropic, and private funds. These strategies outline the financial capital needed to scale or complete designed or in-progress projects and programs.

Commercial Corridor Initiative Outputs and Outreach

Nowak Lab Reports

• Kensington Corridor Trust: The First Four Years

Nowak Lab Projects

• Commercial Corridor Finance Research Convening, May 2023
• Fifth Third Bank: Empowering Black Futures Neighborhood Program, May 2023
• Camden County, NJ Playbook for Diverse and Small Business Growth, January 2024

Newsletters

• Needed: Main Street Regenerators
• Needed: A Main Street Emergency Act