Corridor Program Brief · Aggregated & De-identified · Aug 2026
Where the corridor is getting stronger — and where support is still needed.
Program outcomes, risk signals, and ROI — aggregated across enrolled merchants. Individual business data and lease terms remain private.
47 active
Enrolled businesses
↑ 9 since Q1
$2.1M
Revenue tracked YTD
↑ 14% vs prior year
12
Closures prevented
Est. via lease intervention
3.8:1
Program ROI (modeled)
Months 13–24 projection
Program Deliverables
Goal vs. actual — year to date
Leases Reviewed
84
Goal: 100 · On track
Renewals Secured
31
Goal: 40 · On track
Evictions Prevented
7
Goal: 8 · 1 remaining
Legal Issues Resolved
19
Goal: 20 · Near complete
Corridor Impact Calculator · Modeled Projection
Enrolled businesses
47
Avg annual revenue / biz
$148,000
Assumed retention lift
14%
Program cost (annual)
$162,000
Modeled Net Economic Return
$615,200
Months 13–24 · ROI ratio: 3.8 : 1 · Return: 280%
Modeled projection based on observed program activity. Not verified revenue data. Assumptions are editable by the Analytics team.
Lease Risk Queue · De-identified
Early warning — active flags
| Business type | Risk flag | Months left | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant · Block A | Lease expiring, no renewal option | 4 mo | High |
| Retail · Block C | Month-to-month tenancy | — | High |
| Services · Block B | Rent increase flagged (+22%) | 6 mo | Medium |
| Food & Bev · Block A | ADA clause unverified | 11 mo | Watch |
| Retail · Block D | Renewal window opens | 8 mo | Low |
District Composition
Business mix vs. gap analysis
Vacancy rate
6.2%
Target: under 8% · ↓ from 9.1% in Q1
Interventions · YTD
214
Total program touchpoints across all enrolled businesses
Lease / Renewal98
Payroll / Compliance67
Ops / Tech38
Legal Referrals11
Equity & Representation
Owner demographics vs. residents
Latino/a-owned61% owners
58% of corridor residents
Black/African American9% owners
23% of corridor residents · gap
Female-owned44%
Program avg: 38% · above avg
Community Sentiment
District perception · Aug survey
Goods & Services4.1/5
Cleanliness3.2/5
Safety3.4/5
Storefront quality3.9/5
Parking / Access2.6/5
Top improvement priority: Cleaner public spaces (62% of respondents)
Market Context · Corridor Trade Area
📋
Data Sources & Methodology Note
Demographic data: City of Boston Planning Department Research Division, Boston in Context: Neighborhoods, January 2025 (2019–2023 ACS base + 2025 administrative estimate). Income: 2024 ACS 5-Year Estimates. Sales leakage: estimated from resident expenditure projections scaled from FinePoint/BGMS methodology; requires a current ESRI/Nielsen data purchase for verified figures. All leakage values are directional estimates — label as "modeled" until a licensed data refresh is completed.
Dorchester Population
123,056
Est. Jan 1, 2025 · Boston Planning Dept.
↑ Largest Boston neighborhood
Median Household Income
$73,213
Dorchester 2024 · ACS 5-Year Est.
77% of Boston median ($94,734)
Car-Free Households
27.3%
Dorchester 2025 · Boston Planning Dept.
Shop close to home · transit-dependent
Poverty Rate
19.9%
Dorchester 2025 · Boston Planning Dept.
vs. 17.8% Boston-wide
Race & Ethnicity · Dorchester 2025
Diverse multicultural community
Black / African American
34.3%
vs. 18.4% Boston-wide
Hispanic / Latino
20.3%
vs. 18.3% Boston-wide
White alone
23.1%
vs. 45.2% Boston-wide
Asian / Pacific Islander
11.4%
Similar to Boston-wide (11.8%)
Multiple / other races
10.9%
Source: City of Boston Planning Dept. Research Division, Jan 2025. Based on 2019–2023 ACS shares applied to 2025 population estimates.
Estimated Resident Spending Power · Primary Trade Area
~$148M/yr spent at stores & restaurants
Food & Beverage stores
~$31M
Food Service & Restaurants
~$24M
General Merchandise
~$31M
Clothing & Accessories
~$12M
Health & Personal Care
~$12M
Furniture & Home Furnishings
~$4M
Directional estimates scaled from 2014 BGMS market profile methodology (FinePoint/BGMS). Requires current ESRI/Nielsen purchase for verified figures. Label as "modeled" in funder-facing materials.
Sales Leakage — Estimated Opportunity Gap
Residents spending outside the corridor · by category
Bars show estimated leakage as % of resident demand. Wider bar = more dollars leaving the corridor.
High leakage = unmet demand
Directional · requires ESRI/Nielsen to verify
Grocery Stores
~$14.7M leakage est.
High
Largest single gap · only small convenience stores present in corridor
Clothing Stores
~$5.3M leakage est.
High
Consistent top gap since 2009 · underrepresented vs. comparable districts
Full-Service Restaurants
~$6.6M leakage est.
Medium
Employee lunch market amplifies opportunity (+1,300 workers in PTA)
Home Furnishings & Furniture
~$3.6M leakage est.
Medium
Family households (50% of Dorchester units are 3+ bedrooms) drive furnishings demand
Electronics & Appliances
~$3.4M leakage est.
Medium
Health & Personal Care
Surplus — local demand met
Strength
Hair salons, barbershops, health center drawing customers from beyond the corridor
Total est. leakage (PTA)
~$39–45M
Scaled from 2014 BGMS baseline · directional
Supportable additional sq. ft.
~130,000
At 100% capture · realistic scenario 13–26k sq. ft.
Households with children
47%
Dorchester 2025 · vs. 23% Boston-wide
Non-English spoken at home
39.1%
Dorchester 2025 · Spanish 16.1%, Vietnamese 6.0%
Housing Tenure
Owner-occupied38.4%
Renter-occupied56.9%
Dorchester 2025 · Boston Planning Dept.
Large Family Households
50%
of Dorchester housing units have 3+ bedrooms — highest share in Boston. Signals families, high grocery and children's essentials demand.
Dorchester 2025 · Boston Planning Dept.
Educational Attainment (25+)
Bachelor's+31.9%
Less than HS17%
HS graduate27.7%
Dorchester 2025 · Boston Planning Dept.
How to read this section
Demographic data ✓ Current
Race, ethnicity, income, housing tenure, and car-free rates come from the City of Boston Planning Department's Jan 2025 estimates — the most current sub-neighborhood data available for Dorchester. These are verified figures.
Leakage figures ⚠ Directional only
Sales leakage estimates are scaled from the 2014 BGMS/FinePoint baseline and adjusted for population growth and income changes. They indicate direction and magnitude — not verified dollar figures. A licensed ESRI/Nielsen data pull is required before presenting these as hard numbers to funders.
Next refresh: Commission updated market profile from FinePoint Associates or equivalent — recommended every 3–5 years. Or connect an ESRI Business Analyst / Nielsen feed to auto-update the leakage module.
Racial Wealth Gap Framework · Three-Space Model
Why this framework matters for program evaluation
Place-based programs like this corridor initiative should be evaluated across three interlocking spaces — not just program outputs. Research on racial wealth gap reduction is clear: strategies must examine impact on local neighborhoods and sub-neighborhoods, not simply the number of individuals outreached to. The three columns below map this framework to measurable corridor-level indicators.
Sources: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Mass ECHOS 2025; Urban Institute Financial Health & Wealth Dashboard 2022; FFIEC HMDA 2022; National Community Reinvestment Coalition 2024; ACS 2024.
Space 1 · Historical Discrimination
Structural conditions that inhibit wealth building
Mortgage denial rate (Black applicants, Dorchester tracts)
~34–42%
Black median net wealth · MA 2025
$7,800
White median net wealth · MA 2025
$500,000+
Delinquent debt rate · Black residents MA
38.5%
Delinquent debt rate · White residents MA
16.2%
Corridor commercial properties · external LLC
~38% est.
Sources: Fed Reserve Bank of Boston Mass ECHOS 2025; Urban Institute Financial Health & Wealth Dashboard 2022; FFIEC HMDA 2022; program lease registry
Space 2 · Current Policy Gaps
Ongoing barriers program can directly address
Enrolled businesses with commercial credit access
31% survey
Households · severe rent burden (50%+ of income)
~22% est.
Businesses without a written lease (month-to-month)
4 active
Leases with above-CPI rent escalation clauses
11 flagged
Owner-occupied corridor commercial space (CLT or nonprofit)
~6% est.
Self-employment rate · Dorchester PTA
4% vs 6% citywide
Sources: Program lease registry (verified); ACS 2024; Current Population Survey June 2023; CLT % directional est. from property records
Space 3 · Community Wealth Building
Program outputs that compound over time
Closures prevented (est. via lease intervention)
12 YTD
Business survival rate · enrolled merchants (24-mo)
88%
Revenue tracked · enrolled businesses YTD
$2.1M
Anti-displacement lease protections secured YTD
31
Below-market rate lease renewals negotiated
8
Local hiring rate · enrolled businesses survey
Pending
Sources: Program lease registry; POS data via Rhombus; self-reported survey (hiring rate pending next wave)
💡
How to use this framework with funders: Space 1 metrics are context — they show why the program exists and how deep the structural problem is. Space 2 metrics show where the program intervenes. Space 3 metrics are the outcomes funders care about. Presenting all three columns together makes the case that Convoi is addressing structural causes — not just providing services. Items marked survey require the next community survey wave to populate.
Poverty Trajectory · Corridor & City
Neighborhood Poverty Rate · Trend
Is the corridor bending the curve?
Dorchester · poverty rate
19.9%
→
2025 est. · Boston Planning Dept.
vs. 17.8% city avg
Bowdoin Geneva PTA · poverty rate
~24% est.
→
Scaled from ACS tract data · directional
Above city avg
Boston citywide · poverty rate
17.8%
ACS 2024 · benchmark
Trajectory note
Poverty rate alone is a lagging indicator. Place-based research argues programs should track trajectory — is the rate declining, flat, or rising? Annual ACS tract-level updates will enable year-over-year comparison. The goal: enrolled corridor shows declining poverty rate vs. comparison tracts without program intervention.
Wealth Gap Proxies · Corridor Level
Indicators beyond income that measure closing the gap
Severe housing cost burden (50%+ income to rent)
~22%
Dorchester est. · ACS 2024 · key vulnerability indicator
Households without a bank account
~8% est.
MA Black households · FDIC unbanked data 2023
Aggregate Black household buying power · Dorchester
$4.7B
Boston total Black HH income · ACS 5-Year 2020–2024
% of that buying power captured locally
<40% est.
BGMS 2014: 60%+ purchases made outside PTA · leakage problem
% buying power re-captured by enrolled merchants (goal)
+5–10%
Program target · each 1% = ~$47M locally recaptured annually
Research on corridor economics shows that reviewing consumer expenditure leakage can identify where retail gaps exist — directly encouraging initiatives to start businesses based in the neighborhood.
Business Wealth Creation & Local Hiring
Business Survival Rate
Enrolled vs. national baseline
"Over 30% of businesses fail by year 2 nationally — for Black business owners the failure odds are even greater, with 8 in 10 failing within [early years]." — Atlanta Voice; SBA data. The 88% enrolled survival rate is a program outcome, not a demographic baseline.
Local Hiring Rate Needs survey
% of corridor employees who are corridor residents
—
Pending next survey wave
PTA employment (all sectors)1,305 jobs
Jobs created by enrolled biz (YTD)+14 est.
Jobs paying living wage ($21.37/hr)survey
Action4Equity documents that of 240,000 jobs in Boston paying over $70K/yr, only 5% go to Black people. Local hiring tracks whether enrolled corridor businesses are closing that gap within their own workforce.
Business Wealth & Succession
Asset value + intergenerational transfer
Avg enrolled biz asset value (self-reported)
~$61K survey
vs. $658K white-owned avg nationally · Atlanta Voice
Succession planning status
Has written succession plan
3 / 47
Owner plans to transfer to family
9 / 47
No plan / uncertain
35 / 47
Local / BIPOC vendor share survey
Pending
Local supply chain = multiplier effect · CLT/cooperative model
Metrics requiring next survey wave · Connecting Bowdoin Geneva instrument
Ready to collect (survey instrument exists)
→% of business owners who live in the corridor
→Local hiring rate (% employees from PTA)
→Years in business / years at this location (stability proxy)
→Succession plan or ownership transfer intent
→% suppliers / vendors who are local or BIPOC-owned
→Access to commercial credit (applied / approved / denied)
Requires data purchase or partnership
◦FFIEC HMDA mortgage denial rates by tract (public, annual — free)
◦Sales leakage by category (ESRI Business Analyst license)
◦CLT / community-controlled commercial space % (property records)
◦Appraisal bias index for corridor properties (Urban Institute)
◦Neighborhood median credit score (Urban Institute FH&W Dashboard)
Health Outcomes & Corridor Health Index · Boston
Why health belongs in a business corridor dashboard
The Boston Alliance for Community Health's MAPP framework (2014, updated 2024) establishes that good health starts in homes, schools, workplaces, and streets — not doctor's offices. Business corridor stability is a social determinant of health: displacement causes housing instability, overcrowding, and chronic stress — all documented drivers of the health disparities below. A program that prevents corridor displacement is, measurably, a public health intervention. Sources: BPHC Health of Boston 2023 reports; BPHC Access to Care 2024.
Asthma ER visits · Black vs White (Boston)
9x
Black residents: 112.6 per 10,000 · White residents: 12.5
BPHC Health of Boston 2023
Diabetes mortality · Black vs White (Boston)
3x
Black female: 38.1 per 100K · White female: 11.5
BPHC Health of Boston 2023
Premature mortality · Dorchester zip codes
2x+
293–294 per 100K vs 140 in Back Bay / Downtown
BPHC Health of Boston 2023
MassHealth enrollment · Dorchester
>50%
Dorchester (both zip clusters) in highest tercile citywide
BPHC Access to Care 2024
Corridor Health Outcomes · Dorchester vs. Boston
Chronic disease burden in the program corridor
Connection to corridor stability
BACH (2014): "It is unreasonable to expect people to change health behaviors when social, cultural, and physical environment forces conspire against them." Preventing displacement keeps families in stable housing — directly reducing the stress, overcrowding, and environmental exposures driving these rates.
Sources: BPHC Health of Boston 2023; Health of Boston 2010 (North Dorchester asthma); BACH MAPP Report 2014 (MAPC/BPHC)
Corridor Health Index · MAEA-Aligned · 8 Domains
Bowdoin Geneva vs. Boston citywide
Adapted from PSE Metro Atlanta Equity Atlas framework. Score reflects corridor relative to city avg (100 = parity). Data from ACS 2024, BPHC 2023–2024, CDC PLACES.
📊 Demographics
82below parity
💼 Economic Development
61significant gap
🎓 Education
71below parity
🌿 Environment
66asthma / air quality
❤️ Health
58chronic disease burden
🏠 Housing
63cost burden / vacancy
🚌 Transportation
79MBTA access strong
🛡️ Public Safety
74below parity
Index interpretation
100 = city parity. Scores below 70 indicate significant equity gap. Adapted from PSE Metro Atlanta Equity Atlas 8-domain framework. Scores are directional estimates — not validated index scores. Full validation requires ESRI/CDC PLACES/BRA data integration.
Cultural Competency · Program & Partner Assessment
How cultural competency is defined and why it's measured here
BACH definition (Strategic Issue #1)
The Boston Alliance for Community Health identified "distrust and cultural barriers to engaging and communicating with residents" as a documented local public health system gap. Their short-term action was to develop a tool to assess organizational readiness for racial equity training and shift from diversity training to a comprehensive racial equity framework. Cultural competency is not a checkbox — it shows up in outcomes: whether services reach everyone equitably, not just the English-speaking majority.
Dorchester language context (2025)
Spanish22% of non-English speakers
Indo-European languages21%
Asian / Pacific Islander8%
Other (incl. Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean Creole)2%
Total non-English at home39.1%
Boston Planning Dept. Jan 2025
Cultural Competency Scorecard · Program Self-Assessment
Five domains · current status
Staff & leadership representation
Partial
% staff from corridor communities — needs baseline
Services delivered in community languages
Partial
Spanish capacity exists; Haitian Creole / Cape Verdean gaps — survey pending
Merchant satisfaction · cultural relevance
—
"Program staff understand my business and community" — next survey wave
Outcomes disaggregated by race / language
Gap
Survival rate, lease protections not yet disaggregated by race / primary language
Program trust & enrollment reach
Partial
% eligible businesses enrolled — non-enrollment can signal language/trust gaps
How to measure cultural competency · methods
Validated tools & data sources
IDI
Intercultural Development Inventory
Pre/post staff assessment · 2,500+ orgs globally · BACH recommended
5/5
Merchant satisfaction survey
"Staff understand my community" · quarterly · disaggregated by language
%
Enrollment reach rate
Enrolled ÷ total eligible businesses in corridor · by language group
→
Disaggregate every outcome by race / ethnicity / language: if lease protections are secured at equal rates for Spanish-speaking, Haitian Creole-speaking, and English-speaking merchants, the program is working equitably. If not, that's a cultural competency gap disguised as a program outcome.
→
Track referral channel: did merchants hear about Convoi through community networks (faith institutions, cultural orgs, word of mouth) or institutional channels? Community referrals signal trust; low community referrals signal a cultural access gap.
→
Assess partner institutions: funders, banks, and CDFIs serving the corridor should complete the PSE Just Solutions organizational readiness assessment — cultural competency applies to partners, not just Convoi staff.
Ready to fund the next corridor cohort?
Download the full program report or schedule a briefing with the Convoi team.
Convoi Cooperative · Municipality / Funder View · Mock Dashboard · Aggregated Data Only