The Collective Featured in WHYY

By Taylor Allen, Published April 27, 2021

Read the full article here.

“Anthony Fullard, president of West Powelton Development Corporation, has dedicated his life to all things construction. He’s owned his own company for 10 years and before that, worked 30 years in the industry, starting out as a union ironworker.

“I started from the very bottom of the construction industry and then began to learn the industry,” the Germantown native said. “It’s all about following the money and margins of success is at the ownership level of the project.”

Fullard was the developer behind the Osage and Pine redevelopment project. It’s the site of the MOVE bombing that destroyed 61 homes. The city eventually rebuilt many of them but they were poorly built.

Despite his decades-long history of working in the industry, he acknowledges that he could still use some resources. Now, he is one of the Philadelphia entrepreneurs in The Collective, a Black-led capital network group that launched publicly last week. With a vision to “provide access to resources and capital that will elevate Philadelphia communities of color and generate wealth for neighborhoods victimized by systemic racism,” The Collective felt like the answer to a problem no organization or institution had been able to solve for him and his peers.”