1/19/2021 Can This Wellness-Focused Project In One Of Philly's Poorest Neighborhoods Be A 'Case Study' For Opportunity Zone Development? This Developer Is Trying To Beat The Odds And Build A Wellness Community In One Of Philly's Poorest Neighborhoods January 18, 2021 Matthew Rothstein, Bisnow East Coast (https://www.bisnow.com/author/matthew- rothstein-51988) (mailto:[email protected]) In the Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood of North Philadelphia, a Black-owned, social impact development company will soon break ground on an ambitious project. TPP Capital Management, led by fund manager Anthony Miles and Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Clinton Bush, spent five years assembling parcels of largely vacant land in a five-block radius just to the west of Temple University Health System’s main campus. TPP intends to break ground there this quarter on the first phase of Tioga District, a mixed-use, wellness- focused development complex. The first phase will include 84 rental units for ages 55 and up split across two buildings, one with 30 units and the other with 54, on the 1700 block of Tioga Street. Also breaking ground will be eight buildings of for-sale condos on the 3300 block of North 16th Street, with four units to a building and one in each building designated as affordable housing. The rest of the condos are priced to be “market rate, but market rate for Tioga, not for all of Philadelphia,” Bush told Bisnow. That gap between what market rate means in Nicetown-Tioga relative to the rest of the city is more of a gulf. The neighborhood has a 35% poverty rate, with a median income of $21K, according to U.S. Census American Community Survey data, and $24K according to data from the city of Philadelphia. Even as neighborhoods like Point Breeze (https://www.bisnow.com/tags/point-breeze) that had similar demographics at the start of the 21st century have gentrified, Tioga has remained stagnant or worse (https://www.inquirer.com/news/point-breeze- tioga-nicetown-gentrification-philadelphia-census-neighborhood-change- 20200109.html) economically. https://www.bisnow.com/philadelphia/news/neighborhood/tpp-capital-management-tioga-district-new-wellness-development-107401 1/9 1/19/2021 Can This Wellness-Focused Project In One Of Philly's Poorest Neighborhoods Be A 'Case Study' For Opportunity Zone Development? Tioga District is the first of what TPP hopes are many projects to be developed using capital from TPP Real Estate Development Fund, which Miles is operating as a qualified opportunity fund (https://www.bisnow.com/tags/qualified-opportunity-fund) based on the opportunity zones (https://www.bisnow.com/tags/opportunity-zones) program created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (https://www.bisnow.com/tags/tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-of-2017). The fund has secured $30M in commitments out of its $100M target, and it is still looking for more investors into the fund and directly into Tioga District. “We have the data to support why we’re doing what we’re doing, so we’re making a social impact, a community impact,” Bush said, noting that all of TPP’s assembled parcels sit within census tracts designated as opportunity zones. “Our model at TPP in terms of our social impact is built on food science, medical science and behavioral science. Our real estate is centered around a preventative health hub, which is really what the Tioga development is.” An Unprecedented Project Future phases of Tioga District call for an indoor produce farm run by Wyoming-based company Vertical Harvest, which is scheduled to break ground in the fourth quarter, and a 140K SF medical office building for primary care practices. At full build-out, Tioga District could contain around 20 separate projects, Bush said. Part of the primary care building will be dedicated to nonprofit health care, managed by the Urban Affairs Coalition, a local organization dedicated to assisting other nonprofits with legal and financial management. At some point, Tioga District will include 58 more condos and health-focused commercial space, Bush said. TPP, led by Director of Entitlements Doris Harris, secured zoning approval for the senior housing apartments and workforce housing (https://www.bisnow.com/tags/workforce-housing) condos in March, just before the coronavirus pandemic (https://www.bisnow.com/tags/coronavirus-pandemic) effectively shut down the city for over a month. In the time since, TPP has secured partnerships it believes will deliver an element never before seen in social impact development, and one that can immediately be rolled out on a grand scale. https://www.bisnow.com/philadelphia/news/neighborhood/tpp-capital-management-tioga-district-new-wellness-development-107401 2/9 1/19/2021 Can This Wellness-Focused Project In One Of Philly's Poorest Neighborhoods Be A 'Case Study' For Opportunity Zone Development? TPP announced in December it brought on consulting firm Forefront, which assists developers in integrating wellness technology and principles into their projects, and partnered with Delos, an air purification technology provider and the company behind the International WELL Building Institute (https://www.bisnow.com/tags/international-well-building-institute) and its scoring system. Delos’ DARWIN technology, billed as an integrated, smart tech-based air purification system (https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/multifamily/real-estate-tech- company-to-partner-with-multifamily-developer-to-install-air-purification- system-in-40k-units-105060), will be built into every residential unit and commercial project in the Tioga District. As part of a later phase of construction, Delos will also have a research and development facility called the Well Living Labs, Bush said. “This is a case study to take this model to other qualified opportunity zones (https://www.bisnow.com/tags/qualified-opportunity-zones),” Bush said. “We have a moral obligation as leaders to make these scalable solutions available to the city of Philadelphia, Mayor [Jim] Kenney, the [Philadelphia] School District, Gov. [Tom] Wolf and anyone who wants it because we are smack dab in the middle of a public health crisis. It’s our obligation, and the mayor’s obligation, to look at this opportunity.” Bush said Tioga District will be the first impact-focused or mixed-income residential development in Philadelphia to have a technologically advanced air filtration system, a claim supported by Kevin Gillen, a Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University (https://www.bisnow.com/tags/drexel-university) Senior Research Fellow. “With COVID and the increased likelihood of adverse effects (https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/covid-black-pandemic-risk- pennsylvania-new-jersey-coronavirus-testing-20201127.html) on the local population, I’m sure that increases the impetus for projects like this,” Gillen said. Since the partnership with Delos and Forefront was announced nine months after the most recent meeting between TPP and community groups, multiple neighborhood residents who were present at that meeting were only informed of the planned air purification system when interviewed for this story. Former Tioga United President Pela McFee led her group, which was the registered community organization attached (https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/neighborhood/gentrification- https://www.bisnow.com/philadelphia/news/neighborhood/tpp-capital-management-tioga-district-new-wellness-development-107401 3/9 1/19/2021 Can This Wellness-Focused Project In One Of Philly's Poorest Neighborhoods Be A 'Case Study' For Opportunity Zone Development? fears-community-engagement-neighborhood-development-102901) to the project, at that March meeting, and she expressed an initial reaction of hope mixed with suspicion that other community leaders echoed anonymously. “My reaction would be, of course if you think on the surface level, that would be great,” said McFee, who resigned as Tioga United president shortly after the March meeting for what she called personal reasons unrelated to the project or the organization. “But it also could have a negative connotation that [the technology] isn’t what [TPP] says it is. Because in this community, things aren’t often what [developers] say they are.” TPP plans to offer retrofit installations of the DARWIN system in some neighborhood homes and schools to help people get comfortable with the technology, Bush said. Forefront, Delos and TPP are close to announcing the details of a partnership meant to extend beyond Tioga, Philadelphia and even Pennsylvania. Now that President-elect (and favorite son of Philly (https://www.bisnow.com/philadelphia/news/economic- development/philadelphia-business-think-joe-biden-loves-them-107161)) Joe Biden (https://www.bisnow.com/tags/joe-biden) is on the precipice of inauguration with a narrow Democratic majority in both houses of Congress behind him, the federal government could be looking for projects to champion as proof of a renewed commitment (https://www.bisnow.com/chicago/news/economy/democratic-control- could-help-battle-pandemic-and-inequality-and-help-cre-in-the-bargain- 107379) to supporting urban communities, and Bush expressed hope that Biden himself may take interest in the project. “We’re actually in lockstep with the incoming administration’s philosophy of ‘Build Back Better,’” Bush said, referring to the catchphrase of Biden’s transition plan (https://buildbackbetter.org/). “You have a lot of folks running with that philosophy, but with this relationship [with Delos and Forefront], TPP is demonstrating that that’s what we’re doing.” History To Overcome Though the project they have planned is a trailblazing one, Miles and Bush, brothers who were born and raised in the Francisville neighborhood to the south and east of Nicetown-Tioga and now live in Jacksonville, have followed https://www.bisnow.com/philadelphia/news/neighborhood/tpp-capital-management-tioga-district-new-wellness-development-107401 4/9 1/19/2021 Can This Wellness-Focused Project In One Of Philly's Poorest Neighborhoods Be A 'Case Study' For Opportunity Zone Development? a difficult path known well by those connected to low-income communities of color.