Procida Keeps Rocking on North Broad Street

PHILADELPHIA, PA– (November 13, 2020) – Nearly two years after Bob Dylan celebrated the opening of The Met Philly, Procida Funding has been repaid. Starting out merely as a vision of what the North Broad corridor could eventually become, Eric Blumenfeld’s EBRM and Procida Funding have planted many of the seeds that will make this vision a reality. Over the course of seven years, EBRM, Procida, Reverend Mark Hatcher, and the Church of the Holy Ghost have successfully injected $150 million of capital for historical renovations, transforming the once blighted neighborhood into a destination. The culmination of this joint effort came in December 2018 when the Philadelphia Metropolitan Opera House was completed. In addition to The Met, EBRM and Procida have successfully completed the Divine Lorraine, The Studebaker, Mural Lofts, and much more. These projects have brought hundreds of new jobs into the North Broad corridor, not to mention the 250+ neighborhood residents hired to work at The Met!

“It’s been great having a capital partner like Procida who is able to see the vision when many others can’t. We have had the same vision since we first met in 2013 and now looking at the transformation and seeing the positive effect it has had on this great neighborhood has been amazing,” said Blumenfeld. “The team at Procida stuck with me throughout the process. Without them, North Broad wouldn’t be what it is today.”

Work at The Met started in late 2016 when Blumenfeld wanted to begin exploratory demolition on the building built circa 1908. Long before it became the spectacle it is today, The Met stood vacant for years and slowly deteriorated. Having a previous history of successful projects on North Broad, Procida and EBRM reconnected to complete a demolition and remediation project and then proceeded to design a state-of-the-art facility. It all came together in 2017 when a joint financing package consisting of Fulton Bank, PIDC, Enhanced Capital, and Procida closed to complete the buildout of what everybody is now able to enjoy.

“Our work on North Broad Street is just a testament of what good vision executed with a great team can produce. These were all individual projects, but we looked at each one of them as a center piece to transforming the neighborhood. The Met was always envisioned to be the secret weapon of the neighborhood,” said Derek Weissman, Vice President of Procida Funding. “Many people thought we were crazy and that it could never be done, but here we are and there is more to be done!”