The Philadelphia Mastermind Group had a chance during February’s meeting to hear a presentation from Paul Flora of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Mr. Flora talked about the state of the national economy, as well as the regional economy in the greater Philadelphia area as the city enjoys its first job growth since the 1990s. He discussed the potential impact of various policies on the city’s continued growth including one federal option of a carbon tax that puts a social cost on driving/commuting and therefore encourages people to move into the city.

Questions centered on whether Philadelphia’s growth will continue, especially in terms of offices and multi-family. Some members pointed out that multi-family has enough demand to absorb what’s there now, but may not have enough to absorb everything in the pipeline especially since a lot of projects are high end.