The Pittsburgh Foundation approached The Carey Group because of the growing concern regarding vacant land around Pittsburgh. This was an issue that The Pittsburgh Foundation recognized as something that touched everyone in the city from business owners to homeowners. The Pittsburgh Foundation sought The Carey Group’s help in establishing a land bank, an inventory of vacant or abandoned properties. The Pittsburgh Foundation sought to create a system in order to acquire, manage, maintain, and repurpose these properties. The Carey Group analyzed the land banks used in cities around the country in order to learn from the failures, grow upon the successes, and establish the best program for Pittsburgh.

After the game plan was established, The Carey Group’s role was to advocate and educate the community, council members, and opinion leaders about the need for the land bank and how to implement the best practices we had discovered in our research. The Carey Group utilized our experience with legislators, community organizations, and business leaders to bring people together to talk about this issue. We worked to expand the amount of people who had a voice in this conversation by reaching out and facilitating meetings with interested parties and members of neighborhood who were most affected by these properties. The powerful grassroots campaign on this issue that The Carey Group led ensured that the Pittsburgh Land Bank legislation passed with a strong majority.