The Frankford CDC just can’t stand sitting still, so on Tuesday we held not one, but two, business spotlight events. We started our day at Frankford High School, where we teamed up with the Student Success Center to hold a round table discussion focused on owning your own food business. The panel consisted of three women entrepreneurs based here in Frankford, Lily Fischer of A Cupcake Wonderland, Tegan Hagy of Philly LoveBar, and Therice Denby of Denby’s Sweet Sensations (4428 Frankford Ave). All shared great insight in to the hard work involved in being a small business owner, their decision making processes, and where they see their businesses headed in the next few years. As always, the Frankford High School students were wonderful, and asked some great questions!

In the afternoon, we headed over to Aria’s Frankford Campus for our first Business Spotlight Day. As you may remember, Aria and the Frankford CDC are launching a new program whereby four Frankford businesses, four times a year, set up a table for an afternoon in Aria’s cafeteria and get to know Aria staff who might not ordinarily find themselves shopping on the Ave. We had a great time speaking with Aria’s dedicated staff, and think some great connections were forged!

Stay tuned for more information about coming events, and for details about how to get involved! And if you have an idea for a business support event, we’d love to hear from you! Just call our offices at 215-743-6580.

Back on May 6th we posted about the Frankford Civic meeting and the complaints about the 4700 block of Griscom.  It did not take long before things started happening by way of the Frankford CDC cleaning up and sealing 4728 Griscom Street.  It had been an ongoing concern to the CDC (which owns the building) but what made it more of a problem was that a squatter had taken possession of that building.  Squatters are difficult to deal with but the opportunity presented itself and possession of the building was secured.

The alley between 4728 and the building next door (4732-34 Griscom) which is owned by the city was also cleaned.  The pictures below show what was done.  Now the challenge will be to keep it that way. We’re hoping some concerned residents will come to the PSA1 meeting on Tuesday May 22nd to talk to the police about the problems they are having on the block.

A massive development along the El in Kensington leaves me hoping for a better Frankford future.

I love pushing the idea that Frankford has [any] potential.  And since I take the El to work, I’m always eager to draw comparisons to the neighborhoods I pass by every day, especially Kensington, which I think has many favorable comparisons to Frankford.

Naked Philadelphia has a blog post about the Quaker City Dye Works down in Kensington located at Oxford and Front Streets soon to be re-purposed as light industry and residential development.  It has an eerie resemblance to our own Globe Dye Works, both in name and future.

Things can grow under the El.  Things are growing under the El now.  And they’re 15 minutes away from us.

There is a very nice story that just popped up on Philly.com about Lily Fischer and how she went from preschool teacher to cupcake entrepreneur.

The South Philadelphia woman and her friend Erin Bailey were preschool teachers at Friends Select in Center City in 2009. “I was having a stressful day, so I decided to go home and bake something,” Fischer said. The something was a batch of cupcakes, which they brought in the next day for a coworker.

Noticing the stash, the mommies bit: “Oh, my God! I want to order from you!” Fischer said, re-creating the squeals. What started off as a hobby turned into a side business, A Cupcake Wonderland.

They were picked and flown out to California to compete (for Cupcake Wars, the reality competition series).  Fischer missed her last week of classes but did graduate. But they won their episode. The $10,000 prize allowed them to go legit, setting them up with space in the entrepreneur-rich Globe Dye Works building in Port Richmond. They share a space with LoveBar, a chocolate bar.

Unfortunately, the story has the location of the Globe in the wrong part of the city.  They say where they are on their web site.    No matter where they are, congratulations to Cupcake Wonderland.

This past week, the Frankford CDC stopped by Gil’s shop to observe him in action. He was hard at work restoring a couch that he believes was originally produced in the late 1960s or early 1970s. The process Gil must undertake may seem simple, though proves to be anything but straightforward, as the CDC’s visit demonstrates. First, the couch has to be stripped down to its wooden frame, and then stuffed with new padding. Once Gil makes the new seat cushions, and before the back of the couch has been reassembled, the client will make a trip to the shop to test out her new sofa and determine just how far forward she wants the back to extend. Gil will also replace the coils in the base of the couch with springs, to fulfill the customer’s desire for a firmer seat.

This forty year old piece has a lot of history wrapped up in it, specifically when it comes to the technique and materials used to manufacture and repurpose furniture. The couch was originally stuffed with coconut fiber, which has since gone out of fashion in the industry. However, trends are cyclical, and Gil noted that coconut fiber is making a comeback in part due to its eco-friendly nature and will be used for this particular project. So, not surprisingly, this piece will have a bit of the future woven in to its fibers, too.

Gil believes this piece was not mass produced, but rather built to meet the desires of its original owner. That dovetails perfectly with the ethos of Gil’s shop: a specialty store intended to deliver a customized product. Gil manages about six projects a month, and the CDC intends to keep you updated on the story of this particular couch. So stay tuned, enjoy the pictures below, and go visit Gil at 4529 Frankford Avenue (or give him a call at 215-744-5385) with more questions about how exactly he does what he does.