For years, Building Better Cities has focused on stories of large-scale urban redevelopment projects — in part, because that reflected my own work on transformational projects decades in the making. These mega-projects garner headlines and resources that allow cities to reshape their skylines and drive real economic upturn. And these projects still matter, but they're getting harder to deliver. Financing is more complex and uncertain, entitlement timelines stretch longer, and by the time construction starts, the market that justified the project has often already moved.

Increasingly, the people actually getting things done are working at a different scale entirely — one building, one block, one deal that responds to exactly what a specific place needs.

This quarter, we went looking for what that shift actually looks like. We found a developer who turned a vacant, concrete behemoth in South Philly into a home for 150+ small businesses. We found a small-developer network built entirely around treating community outcomes as the goal, not the byproduct. We found patient capital structures trying to fund the kind of work banks don't yet know how to underwrite.

The pattern is the same everywhere: local development is proving to be exactly the kind of city-building we need right now. The problem is that the regulations, capital, and timelines were all built for something else. Read more on the Building Better Cities substack!

Hope this gets you thinking,

Founder and CEO, Building Better Cities

When Impact Is the Asset: Transforming Forgotten Spaces

In 2014, Philadelphia’s school district auctioned off a shuttered vocational school in South Philly — 340,000 square feet, built like a bomb shelter. Seven developers looked at it. Some bid a dollar. Lindsey Scannapieco bid $1.75 million. That building is now Bok: home to more than 150 businesses, the majority owned by women and people of color, and one of the most celebrated adaptive reuse projects in the country.

Lindsey is the founder of Scout, an urban design and development practice with a radically different approach to city development — she listens to buildings and lets them tell her what they want to be, treating existing urban infrastructure as an asset rather than a liability.

In this episode, we explore the anatomy of an impact development deal versus a traditional one: structuring for public benefit, underwriting community value that takes years to materialize, and why reusing what a city already has is one of the most sustainable, resilient ways to build vibrant neighborhoods. We also talk about the five-day "funeral" Scout held for a beloved arts institution, and the pathway torward the Village of Industry and Art — born from the closure of the University of the Arts.

Why Local Developers Matter More Than Ever

For generations, cities were built by the people who lived in them. That's why so many of our most beloved neighborhoods feel like quilted fabrics of architectural styles, mixed uses, interwoven public spaces, and human-scale details. These vibrant neighborhoods weren't delivered all at once through a single master plan — they emerged gradually through incremental urban development, one building, one block, one local investment at a time.

Today, many communities say they want more housing, more walkable neighborhoods, more local character, and more vibrant main streets. But too often, the systems shaping urban development and city projects only make room for the biggest players and the largest deals — leaving small-scale, sustainable development on the sidelines.

So what does it look like to reopen the door to small-scale urban development?

In this episode, we sat down with Jim Heid — founder of Building Small, developer, strategist, and author. Jim has spent years championing a different approach to growth: human-scale projects, adaptive reuse, local ownership, and the idea that smaller developments can create outsized impact on neighborhoods and local economies.

Can Impact Investing Redefine Urban Development?

What does it actually take to invest in a neighborhood — not just a building — and get it right? In this episode, Brian Murray, CEO and co-founder of Shift Capital, takes us inside 15 years of community development projects that started with a few neglected industrial buildings in Kensington, Philadelphia and evolved into a national impact investment platform.

Brian shares how Shift's "Whole Neighborhood" approach to urban development differs from traditional real estate — pooling investors across asset types so that loss leaders, small storefronts, and anchor projects can work together as a single ecosystem. He walks through the creation of J-Centrel, a 110-unit adaptive reuse project with a built-in civic engagement program, and how its planned exit into the Kensington Corridor Trust — the country's first community-owned perpetual purpose trust — became a national model for equitable city development.

• Land value tax incentivizes more development, pathway forward in WA [Sightline]

• England’s PM candidate eyes land value tax as part of tax overhaul [Standard]

• Uneven investments in transit ahead of World Cup favor guests over residents [EnoTrans]

• Third Frontage Initiative seeks to convert 1900 miles of alleys into new streetscapes in Chicago [World Business Chicago]

• Landmark housing bill becomes law without Trump’s signature [NPR]

• LA’s historic new purple line connects Beverly Hills to the network [Streetsblog]

• USDOT plans to remove funding from bike lanes, citing DEI [Planetizen]

Building Better Cities is on the brink of a new chapter. If you’re interested in learning more about what’s to come, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Also, we are always looking to share the incredible work of this community through our many channels. If you have a story or something that’s on your mind, please email or message us. In the meantime, we’d so appreciate you sharing this email and subscribing your friends.