…such understanding can reveal surprising benefits, as Shift Capital principal Tony Ewing found out when his company consulted local registered community organizations on what to do with the Beury Building on North Broad Street, locally popular for the infamous graffiti high up on its walls. Shift was considering different ways to build a multifamily project with a commercial ground floor when the possibility of a hotel arose from conversations with representatives from the RCOs.
“It still is somewhat progressive to think about a hotel in that particular section [of the city], but the neighborhood reacted so positively that we signed a letter of intent with Marriott to build a Courtyard hotel,” Ewing said. “That was before the pandemic, and since that hit the hotel industry, things have stalled a bit, but that choice was a direct reaction to the community’s response and what it said it would support.”
