1985 - Project Catalyst Formed

Late 1985 - Project Catalyst is formed.

• By the late 1970s, drugs and violence were having an increasing impact on cities across the nation. Many areas within Charlotte's black neighborhoods had gradually become impoverished. 
• In response, local leaders began to work to get the funds and support necessary to rebuild and revive these areas. Now, on the initiative of President Robert Albright from Johnson C. Smith University (pictured), civic, business, and neighborhood leaders meet with university officials to form a strategy to revitalize the 12 neighborhoods of the Northwest Corridor. 
• They organize Project Catalyst, which will spawn both the West Charlotte Business Incubator and the Northwest Corridor Community Development Corridor in the 1990s. These groups will help build public and private partnerships to improve the quality of life in northwest Charlotte.