Allegheny Conference On Community Development

Spearheading downtown pittsburgh's revitalization: downtown pittsburgh is pivotal to the region's economic vitality. The allegheny conference launched a collaborative vision plan to reimagine our urban core. In collaboration with allegheny county, the city of pittsburgh, and 80+ partners, we spearheaded a comprehensive, market-driven strategy for downtown. Governor shapiro committed $600 million in public-private investment to support its implementation over the next decade. - public realm upgrades: secured funding and advanced the design of two public space projects, setting the stage for construction with backing from public, corporate, and philanthropic leaders. - housing momentum: supported the urban redevelopment authority (ura) in deploying downtown conversion program funds and advocated to state leaders to continue reinvesting in these funds, leading to two major residential conversion projects breaking ground in 2024, and hundreds of other unites to come over the next few years. - policy: advocated for and secured approval of theby-right lerta (local economic revitalization tax abatement program),which incentivizes investment in downtown properties. With the county, city, and school taxing bodies on board, the program is fully operational.

Driving federal investments to advance industry clusters: federal investments play a vital role in strengthening our regional economy, particularly in advancing key industry clusters. By leveraging funding, we are accelerating growth in energy, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and robotics. - growing our federal share: in recent years, pennsylvania has consistently captured 4% of all u.s. Federal grant funding. In 2024, swpa surpassed expectations securing 7% of all u.s. Federal fundingand bringing in $2.24 billionto fuel economic growth. - direct application support: two-thirds of our business attraction and expansion projects leveraged federal funds. The conference provides input ontechnical requirements, data analysis, and application processesto help companies secure these dollars. - industrial decarbonization: we supported pennsylvania's successful application to the u.s. Epa for $400m in rise pa (reducing industrial sector emissions)funding, helping manufacturers transition to lower-carbon operations. - new economy collaborative: backed by funding from the build back better regional challenge, the new economy collaborative of southwestern pennsylvania a coalition led by the conference and carnegie mellon university in partnership with 90+ partners has served over 1,100 businesses. This initiative accelerated the adoption of robotics and autonomous systems for manufacturing companies, helped startups scale and connect with industry to commercialize their technologies, and created training opportunities for workers to upskill into robotics adjacent careers in the region.

Shaping the future through thought leadership: driving meaningful economic change requires more than just action it demands insight, strategy, and influence. The allegheny conference continues to be a national thought leader, guiding policies and best practices in economic development. We released a data-driven research series including "the impact of regional business expansion: why "growing our own" matters," "insights on demographics and workforce, four "quarterly vitals" reports, as well as four trend reports on demographics, migration, employment, and workforce.workforce & inclusive growth: we conducted28 listening sessionswithentrepreneurial support organizations, community-based organizations, and mwdbe (minority, women, and disadvantaged business enterprises) leaders. Their insights directly informed new workforce and procurement policy recommendations.