Building a Valuable Tool for a Thriving Business District

Since 2002, East Passyunk Avenue Improvement District (EPABID) has overseen the revitalization of one of the longest standing business corridors in the United States. Today, “The Ave” is home to over 160 independent businesses, 40% of which are owned by women, and is among the most popular destinations for foodies and shoppers alike.

The Problem

As EPABID planned their continued growth, they required an updated web presence that served as a valuable tool to ensure that visitors to the avenue would easily find businesses to visit and events to attend. Site editors also needed an easy way to manage content that would be easy to update and organize.


The Solution

We ran workshops with EPABID members at every level from staff and board members to volunteers and Avenue business owners. The result of this research was a completely redesigned site that emphasized Avenue events and independent businesses.


To make sure that EPABID’s site would stay fast and stable, we built a custom WordPress site using Next.JS and Tailwinds using Shifter Headless as our hosting infrastructure. By using Shifter Headless, we were able to drastically cut down on our setup time and provide EPABID with an intuitive content management solution. We also developed a custom business directory integrated with Algolia search that captures broad search terms and allows users to find businesses quickly.