Our Mission

Public Interest Projects, Inc. (PIP) is a for profit business and real estate development firm located in Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville, a small city in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, serves as the regional center for the mountain area of the state.

The region has, for many years, suffered economically. Good jobs are scarce, particularly for more educated workers. The region, however, is blessed with a great climate, a beautiful natural environment, and an exceptional group of architecturally and historically significant buildings, particularly in Asheville's downtown. While the economy of the region must grow, the current mode of development, with its accompanying suburban sprawl and automobile dependency, represents a serious threat to the community's economic future as well as its natural and man-made resources.

In Asheville, as in the rest of the nation's urban areas, the overall pattern of working and living is seen by many as neither healthy nor satisfying. Many question its sustainability. All of these challenges for US cities are occurring against a backdrop of rapid change in the workplace brought on by the development of the global marketplace and advances in computers and telecommunications.

Although one small company in Asheville, North Carolina is not going to change the world, the country is in dire need of models which work. For the livability of urban areas to improve, the current trend toward sprawl and automobile dependency must be countered by developments in central city cores that provide a) secure, meaningful work, b) attractive, affordable housing, c) greenspaces and outdoor recreational activities, d) convenient, reliable public transportation, and e) stimulating opportunities for personal interaction, education, shopping, and entertainment. Asheville has the potential to become a model of such a livable urban community.

Public Interest Projects was founded by local resident, Julian Price. Before developing the investment strategy represented by Public Interest Projects, Mr. Price was very active as a local and regional philanthropist. Public Interest Projects grew from his desire to see some of his capital invested locally in business and real estate projects which benefitted the community while at the same time producing a reasonable and self-sustaining rate of return.