Urbane Development

Urbane Development (Urbane) is a community development venture and certified M/WBE based in New York City. Founded in 2008, Urbane cultivates innovative solutions to build dynamic neighborhoods and positively impact underserved communities. We specialize in helping enterprises, entrepreneurs, and anchor institutions in underserved communities to take their businesses and organizations to the next level. It is our strategy for creating local wealth and a way to begin to address the social inequity caused by a failure in the marketplace to provide quality, affordable goods and services in dynamic, diverse, but underserved communities.

We provide our clients with market intelligence and analytics, customized program development, and technical assistance platforms that create value for their enterprises and communities. Our services are organized along a continuum of planning, design, project management, implementation and evaluation – with the ultimate goal of helping clients get from point A to point B with the greatest efficiency, effectiveness, and impact. Our team is comprised of a creative and diverse team reflective of their talents and interests in economic development, public policy, business strategy, and anthropology, and spearheaded by James Johnson-Piett.

Urbane By the Numbers

To date, the company has worked with over 1,000 small businesses, which represent over 1.1 million square feet of commercial and community facility space. Urbane has raised over $50 million in capital to help these small business, commercial projects, and community development initiatives in low-income areas with the goal of promoting internal wealth generation. The consultancy has attracted over 400,000 square feet in national chain retail, including Whole Foods and Meijer, in over 20 underserved communities across the country. Urbane consults on projects throughout North American, including New York City, Detroit, Oakland, Seattle, New Orleans, and Toronto.

For more information, please visit us at: http://urbane-dev.com/