Partner Spotlight: Urbane Development

"Win the corner, Win the block, Win the neighborhood"

Meet Urbane Development Group, LTD, a minority owned community development business based in New York City and Philadelphia. Since 2008, Urbane Development has been on a mission to transform underserved communities by building infrastructures that facilitate community wealth and collective business opportunities. Not only have they worked with over 1,000 small businesses, representing 1.1 million square feet of commercial and community facility space, but helped raise $55 million to assist community development initiatives in low-income areas. Convergent Law (formerly NP Law) is honored to work with such an amazing company, and we sat down with their Principal and CEO, James Johnson-Piett, recently to chat more about the work they are doing.

Prior to starting Urbane Development, Johnson-Piett worked with organizations in Philadelphia to identify underserved communities that needed help accessing affordable and good-quality food, popularly known as food deserts. The success of his work in Philadelphia led to collaborating with the Obama Administration and the “Let’s Move” initiative to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, nutritious food, and information to make healthy decisions nationwide.  

Now, with Urbane Development, James works with community anchors – schools, markets, faith-based groups, and other locally-established institutions, to build resilient neighborhoods and solve the problems that affect everyone's quality of life within their respective communities. 

Convergent Law (formerly NP Law) began working with Urbane Development team in 2021 after their Director, Naim Brown, met Jong and Lillian through a mutual connection. After learning more about Convergent Law, they felt the firm aligned with how they saw the world and overall mission. It was a match made in heaven. The firm now supports them in co-defying leasing and licenses for community projects and joint venture deals that include mixed-use developments, multi-family infrastructures and public housing.  

James said, “This is the first law firm we actually enjoy working with. They’ve made our lives better.” We are so happy to continue supporting their mission to "Win the corner, Win the block, Win the neighborhood".