New Partnership with the Philadelphia Association of CDCs Draws a Crowd
Citi has partnered with the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PACDC) to bring NDC training to Philadelphia for the first time, with terrific results. Don Haskin, Citi’s Community Development Director for Pennsylvania, brought PACDC together with theCiti Foundation to host more than 40 practitioners from community development corporations (CDCs) at a local offering of the NDC’s Mixed-Use Real Estate Finance course. The participants gathered at the PECO headquarters for two days of intense classroom training in October 2010.
“Philadelphia is fortunate to have some of the nation’s best CDCs,” Mr. Haskin said. “We were glad to link the Foundation’s funding capacity; PACDC’s proven ability to plan the event and get the word out; and NDC’s outstanding training program. It was a winning combination.”
The participants — who included community development professionals, developers and lenders from across the city — worked through mixed-use case studies based on actual deals and applied the financing concepts learned during the lecture portion of the class to structure actual financing solutions.
Participants also were able to network with others involved in mixed-use development in Philadelphia and to learn about local resources. Philadelphia City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. and Andy Frishkoff of the Philadelphia Department of Commerce (DOC) were in attendance to introduce and explain the newly-enacted Philadelphia Mixed-Use Development Fund, a partnership between DOC and the Office of Housing and Community Development.
NDC commends Citi and PACDC for their investment of time and resources to build capacity in Philadelphia.