News & Awards

Initiative for a Competitive Inner City

Project: Initiative for a Competitive Inner City
Award: Inner City 100
Category: Fastest Growing Urban Businesses
Date: 2011

The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and Fortune Magazine released the 2011 Inner City 100 list of the fastest-growing inner city companies in the U.S. Gelfand Partners Architects in San Francisco ranked 72nd on this year’s list. The Inner City 100 program recognizes successful inner city companies and their CEO’s as role models for entrepreneurship, innovative business practices and job creation in America’s urban communities. The full list can be viewed at www.fortune.com/innercity100.

The Inner City 100 list provides unmatched original data on the fastest growing inner-city businesses in the U.S. For the 2011 list, a record number of 2000 nominations were received. Winners represent a wide span of geography, operating in 51 cities and 32 states. The 2011 Inner City 100 winners grew at a compound annual growth rate of 39 percent between 2004 and 2009. Collectively, the top 100 inner city businesses employ 6,720 employees and have created more than 3,227 new jobs between 2005 and 2009.

The Inner City 100 list is proof of concept that doing business in an inner city area holds a distinct competitive advantage. ICIC has been studying the economic condition of the largest 100 American cities for more than a decade and is working to revitalize inner cities across the country.

To qualify for the Inner City 100 list, companies were required to have at least 51 percent of their operations located in an economically distressed urban area; have at least 10 full-time employees; and a five-year operating sales history that includes at least $200,000 in revenues in the first year of consideration, an increase in year five sales over year four sales, and fifth-year sales of at least $1 million. For the 2011 list, ICIC looked at total revenue growth from 2005 to 2009 and the specific rankings were based on these growth rates. An economically distressed urban area is defined by ICIC as having a 50 percent higher unemployment level, 50 percent higher poverty level, and 50 percent lower median income than the metropolitan statistical area.

Inner City 100 Sponsors: Bank of America, Chevron Corporation, Goldman Sachs and Staples Foundation