New Philadelphia Youth Basketball (PYB) facility offers safe haven for youths

PHILADELPHIA—The state-of-the-art Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center has served as a hub for the Philadelphia community since its grand opening in July and is offering a leg up to city youths.

The $45 million-plus, 100,000-square-foot facility – formerly a large shipbuilding factory - was deemed “a consultant’s dream” by one of its contributors and is operated by Philadelphia Youth Basketball (PYB), a non-profit organization that intertwines youth development, community and economic empowerment, and workforce development to “impact the lives of Philadelphia’s young people,” as outlined in its mission statement.

Named after an octogenarian Philadelphia-based developer and philanthropist (and diehard Philadelphia 76ers fan), the Sixth Man Center is located in the Nicetown neighborhood of North Philadelphia.

Featuring seven high school-length basketball courts, four classrooms, common areas to relax, recharge, and build meaningful connections, an education suite for interactive learning, as well as both a physical and mental wellness “oasis” to promote the physical health, strength, and physical development, and social and emotional well-being of young people, the Sixth Man Center offers various resources year-round designed to foster academic, intellectual, social, emotional, civic, and vocational development.

“The organization was founded about nine years ago with this mission in mind, to have a permanent home facility for youth in the community where basketball is the iconic game in  Philadelphia,” said Jayson Tischler, PYB chief operating officer (pictured). “We developed this center after a few property acquisition attempts. We purchased the Sixth Man Center building around December 2021 and executed on the development project’s financing in March of 2022, so it was about seven years in the making to find a home and execute on the vision. Then for the last two years or so, we've been in full development mode, bringing the building to life.”

It took a team effort of security consultants, architects, and manufacturers to truly create a safe haven for the youth and community members of Philadelphia. 

The team - Andrew Lipshutz, senior project manager, Voith & Mactavish Architects; security consultants Bill Durso, The Durso Group, and Sam Vinicur, Kolins Security Group; and PYB leadership - partnered early with security manufacturer/integrator Siemens to focus on developing the best solution for the safety of the children, patrons, and employees/volunteers of the facility.

Durso, founder and principal advisor for The Durso Group - now a part of COSECURE - called the consulting aspect of the Sixth Man Center a “delicate balancing act.” 

“We had to provide the security systems necessary for managing people, processes, property, but also provide an open community environment for everyone coming in, whether it's participants in one of the programs, the mentors and coaches who were going to be inside the facility, guests, or local neighbors coming in and checking it out,” he explained.

In addition, Durso cited the importance of working with the PYB team to detail the security measures that were going to be implemented, such as cameras, access control, visitor management systems and weapons detection technology in conjunction with the security operations policies and procedures.

“We really had to take an approach of, ‘It's a unique environment,’ that needed to be open yet secure and community driven, yet still maintain the security systems and technology to be able to provide what we wanted to - create an open, yet secure environment,” he noted.

Lipschutz called it “pretty amazing” to see the hard work that was done over the past few years to bring the renovated facility to life.

“PYB having a brand-new facility and understanding how it's going to operate and how they’re going to work in this space takes input from everyone, and that input evolves and changes, but you can't do it without the specialty of everyone here,” he stated.

To tie it all together, Siemens provided its SiPass integrated access control system with Siveillance VMS along with all other aspects of the security and fire alarm systems for the facility.

“I just really want to applaud PYB and the entire team. They did something that most nonprofits out there can only dream up. They have their own facility,” said Ryan Leithead, senior sales manager, security, Siemens. “They're driving their mission 110%, they’re making a true difference and impact and will for many years to come.”

Leithead also pointed out that this partnership was a success because it was adopted early in the process, and each stakeholder was focused on the goal of providing a safe space for this cause.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the official opening of the Sixth Man Center on July 9, 2024. Ameen Akbar, PYB chief mission officer, explained how the new facility will impact the young people and community members who can take advantage of the amenities that the new facility will provide.

“Certainly, Philadelphia has a rich tradition of basketball, and lots of young people and communities are engaged in it,” he noted “We use that opportunity to teach a bunch of life skills, talk about pathways for young people, not just on the court but off the court. Because we have a physical center now, we get to have deeper touch points and be able to service more young people and community members.”