Developing craftsmanship ties back into economic development because it supports artisanal manufacturers who typically use apprenticeship models to develop skills. Community-scaled manufacturing recovers the societal value of jobs in which people make things.
top-rate facilities. These facilities are supporting the existence of manufacturing enterprises and custom-made artisanal operations, such as furniture designers, jewelry makers, upholsterers, woodworkers, and fabricators. Through the use of new market tax credits and historic preservation tax credits, GMDC is able to restore industrial spaces into productive economic generators. As evidence for its contribution to the job market, more than 100 businesses currently reside in GMDC’s buildings, and together they support over 500 workers. Furthermore, GMDC has found that a large percentage of people employed by their tenants are residents from the surrounding community. These findings show that industrial conversions and small manu-
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facturing businesses can co-exist with existing residential communities. GMDC’s redevelopment model is proving to be a successful method of rehabilitating abandoned industrial buildings and growing local jobs.
The GMDC Philadelphia Project In recent years, the GMDC board of directors and staff underwent a strategic planning process. Out of this process, one of GMDC’s goals is to identify ways to share its economic development approach beyond Brooklyn. Philadelphia, with its vicinity to New York and its challenges to redevelop abandoned industrial spaces, became a place of interest for GMDC. With the help of the William Penn Foundation, GMDC began a
pre-development phase to better understand the Philadelphia market and cultivate local partnerships. In particular, the North Philadelphia area was very attractive because of its rich industrial history, large inventory of underutilized or abandoned industrial properties, and the continued presence of manufacturing operations in the area. Incidentally, GMDC’s pre-development phase was well-timed to connect with several initiatives already taking place in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation had begun an extensive survey of existing industrial land use that covers over 15,000 acres of property. Its final report will also inform the city of how these lands could be used within the city’s effort to rewrite the city zoning a number of future land