The Growth Collective³: Philadelphia’s Black-Owned Real Estate Investment Organization Raising $100 Million to Build Wealth in Communities of Color

In Philadelphia — a city that is 67% BIPOC — white-owned businesses represent four out of every five firms. Black homeownership has fallen from 55% in 2000 to 43% today. The racial wealth gap is so entrenched that at current trends, it would take Black families in Philadelphia approximately 228 years to reach the wealth of white families. Those are not statistics about market forces. They are the outcomes of deliberate policy — redlining, disinvestment, and a commercial real estate industry that has, for generations, locked Black developers out of the rooms where capital is allocated.

The Growth Collective³ was built to change that arithmetic.

Founded by Sandra Dungee Glenn, Steven L. Sanders, and Tayyib Smith, The Growth Collective³ is Black-owned, operated, and led — a real estate investment and community development organization raising $100 million to fund Black-led real estate projects across Philadelphia. The three principal founders bring complementary depth: Glenn has spent over 40 years in executive roles spanning community development, education, public policy, and electoral politics. Sanders is the chairman of Beltraith Capital, an investment firm with $1.8 billion in assets under management. Smith is a cultural strategist, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Smith & Roller development firm, whose work on Philadelphia’s commercial corridors and commitment to what he calls ethical development has been covered by the Philadelphia Inquirer, WHYY, Bisnow, and ImpactAlpha.

The Growth Collective³ operates through two interconnected entities: The Collective Network, a research-focused Benefit Corporation, and The Collective Investment Group, a registered investment manager that curates, vets, and aggregates real estate projects for investors who want market-rate returns and meaningful community impact simultaneously. The seven developers in the network have identified over $300 million in projects covering 4.1 million square feet across 10 Philadelphia neighborhoods — projects stalled not for lack of quality, but for lack of access to equity capital.

That gap is the problem The Growth Collective³ exists to close. The organization does not ask for charity investment. It presents itself as an opportunity: a channel for institutional capital to enter neighborhoods that have been systematically undervalued, backed by Black developers with deep community roots, technical expertise, and a demonstrated track record of delivering.

The work is already happening on the ground. Smith & Roller’s $35 million Kensington project — converting the historic Textile National Bank at 1801 E. Huntingdon Street into a commissary kitchen and banquet hall anchored by Strother Enterprises, a Black-owned catering company with 35 years of history — represents the Collective’s development philosophy in practice. Backed by the Reinvestment Fund, Nonprofit Finance Fund, and the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, the project will create 70 full-time jobs and more than 200 indirect employment opportunities. Businesses owned by underrepresented groups get first priority for commercial spaces. A workforce development program operated with Impact Services will train more than 75 Kensington residents annually. The historic bank building — vacant since the 1990s and a notorious anchor for opioid activity on the avenue — will be restored and reopened.

That project is not an outlier. It is the model. Real estate development as political action. Investment as community stewardship. Capital that builds wealth for the people who actually live in the neighborhoods, rather than extracting value from them.

Smith has described what motivates this work with precision: ‘It’s not possible to have a functioning, holistic community when people don’t have access to the 21st century economy or safe housing. If we don’t address this with people who look like the very same people who inhabit the lion’s share of this city, we will continue to make the same mistake we’ve made in the past, while making other people enriched building housing in our communities.’

The Growth Collective³ is the infrastructure for a different outcome. Black-owned. Black-led. Building Philadelphia from the inside out.

thecollectivephl.com