Where we work
The corridor
is the strategy.
RFEDC's work is place-based on purpose. The same corridor that absorbed decades of disinvestment is where we rebuild — housing, business, and workforce infrastructure sited on the ground residents already live on.
01 / The corridor
Raleigh-Frayser, North Memphis
The Raleigh-Frayser corridor runs through the northern edge of Memphis — a neighborhood that was once a thriving working-class community and has since absorbed decades of disinvestment, population loss, and economic contraction.
RFEDC's approach is deliberately place-based. Rather than operating programs from a central office and asking residents to travel to receive services, every program is sited on the corridor — at 3730 Jackson Avenue and in the surrounding neighborhood.
RFEDC Corridor Office
3730 Jackson AvenueMemphis, TN 38108
Jackson Avenue Corridor · North Memphis
3730 Jackson Ave, Memphis TN 38108
02 / Strategy
Why place-based?
Place-based economic development works differently than program-delivery models. Instead of moving people to resources, it moves resources to people — and keeps them there long enough to compound. RFEDC's corridor strategy is built on three premises.
01
Proximity removes barriers
When capital access, job training, and business support are on the corridor, residents don't have to choose between accessing services and keeping their jobs, their childcare, or their transportation.
02
Concentration compounds
Scattered investments produce scattered results. Concentrating housing, business, and workforce programs on the same corridor creates the density of activity that attracts additional investment.
03
Ownership anchors
The goal is not employment in the corridor — it's ownership of it. Residents who own homes and businesses on the corridor have a stake in its long-term health that employment alone doesn't create.
03 / Investment case
Why invest in this corridor
The Raleigh-Frayser corridor represents a high-leverage opportunity for philanthropic and institutional capital. The conditions that make it a challenging market — low land costs, underutilized commercial stock, a workforce with unmet training needs — are the same conditions that make concentrated investment unusually productive.
Formal infrastructure already in place
RFEDC is a Tennessee nonprofit with DAF eligibility via CFGM, formal board governance, and expenditure responsibility controls. Capital can move immediately.
Programs matched to real demand
The Small Business Satellite Office, Trade School Initiative, and Capital Infrastructure programs are designed around documented gaps — not assumptions about what the corridor needs.
Low cost basis, high leverage
Land and commercial real estate on the corridor are priced well below Memphis averages. Philanthropic capital deployed here goes further than in higher-cost neighborhoods.
Resident-led, not parachuted in
RFEDC is rooted in the corridor. Programs are designed with and for residents — not delivered to them from the outside.
Bring capital to the corridor.
RFEDC's formal nonprofit infrastructure is built to absorb serious, sustained investment. Reach out to discuss how your capital can move on the corridor.