Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp

A nonprofit corporation controlled jointly by the city government and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, formed in 1958 to support existing businesses and attract new ones by offering land and low-cost financing for both for-profit and nonprofit enterprises. To accomplish this mission, PIDC manages the oldest municipal land bank in the United States, pioneering a novel approach to assembling, upgrading, and marketing urban land to business owners... Some have faulted PIDC for shifting manufacturing to industrial parks at the far edges of the city. In so doing, PIDC spurred job growth in locations only reachable by automobiles, and that requirement discouraged employment of low-income workers who did not own cars. Good-government advocates, including the city controller, have periodically complained that PIDC conducts its business without regard to the checks and balances that normally constrain government. As a separate nonprofit corporation, PIDC is able to circumvent debt-protection and bidding requirements and spend money outside of the usual appropriation process, without the transparency normally expected from government departments. PIDC administers the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development (PAID) Bond Program. Tax-exempt bond financing is available to certain manufacturing facilities and/or non-profit 501(c)(3) facilities. PAID issues bonds that are non-recourse to PAID and PIDC requiring the beneficiary (non-profit or manufacturer) or bank guarantor, to be responsible for the repayment of the debt to the bond purchasers. The bond purchaser and/or guarantor in consultation with the investment broker or underwriter and borrowers, determine all business terms, including collateral, amount, term and rate.