Philadelphia Youth Basketball soon to open newly built Alan Horwitz ‘Sixth Man’ Center

The newly built 100,000-square foot Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center in North Philadelphia is well hidden on the 4200 block of Wissahickon Avenue. It’s accessible only by traveling up a driveway that is known as the “Pathway to Success.”

Inside, new life has been infused into the hallways of a rather old building.

When Philadelphia Youth Basketball’s chief missions officer, Ameen Akbar, walks through the halls, his blaring voice echoes off the walls as he talks about the finished product.

He gets most excited about one obscure feature of the building.

“Low key,” Akbar said, “I am really excited about the steps. I like that I can see the steps.”

Akbar’s excitement about a normal set of stairs represents how far PYB has come in creating a space where the organization can achieve its goal of developing a community around the game of basketball.

“The building’s completion represents the physical manifestation of PYB’s mission, vision, and values in which thousands of people have contributed,” Akbar said. “We now get to live that mission out in our own building with thousands more young people, community members, and stakeholders that will last decades beyond this moment.”

PYB is about the growth and development of underserved children. Many on the staff are homegrown, coming from Philly or surrounding towns, and have tried to put the next generation on the right path.

While the main attraction for the center is the basketball courts that will host clinics, camps, and tournaments, the center will be much more than that.

“What you are seeing is a fraction of what this center is offering,” said Kenny Holdsman, PYB’s co-founder and CEO. “When you go upstairs, I’m looking at a youth multimedia lab. I’m looking at a youth leadership hub.”

Akbar wants the future generations to reap the benefits of the new building.

“I’m 46 years old,” Akbar said. “I envision myself at 96 sitting under that rim and having somebody say, ‘I think [that] old head used to work here.’ That would’ve meant that we’ve been running quality programming for young people and communities for five decades.”

PYB co-founder Eric Worley, also the creator of the Philly Triple Threat AAU program, bumped into Holdsman by chance nearly a decade ago. Worley was coaching Philly Triple Threat in a tournament that Holdman’s son was participating in.

Holdsman was running the Arthur Ashe Legacy Tennis Center at the time and invited Worley to meet with him. From there, the relationship between the two blossomed.

“When Kenny and I met, he was immediately impressed with the structure of my youth organization,” Worley said. “Once I went into the Arthur Ashe Legacy Tennis Center, one of the things that I was immediately amazed by was this amazing physical space that they had created to serve young people through the sport of tennis.”

What Holdsman was doing for the sport of tennis gave Worley the idea to give kids a similar space on the hardwood.

After the two had a conversation, Philadelphia Youth Basketball was formed.

“Kenny kind of took to that first idea in that first conversation,” Worley said. “That just kind of grew into our first handful of founding members that have started the organization. That turned into a concept paper, that turned into some seed funding, then the PYB train started to move down the track.”

But there was just one problem for Holdsman, who’s from Cheltenham. Many of the kids using PYB’s facilities are Black, but he is not. Several questioned his intentions, he said.

“For the first few years I think that there were members of the basketball community, understandably so, who looked at me like, ‘Who the hell is that guy?,’” Holdsman said. “So for me, it’s always been about understanding your own identity. The organization that we’ve built [is an] authentic commitment to racial equity.”

» READ MORE: A new 100,000-square-foot basketball facility in Nicetown gives Philly youths the space they crave

While Holdsman and Worley had the vision, they still needed to execute. For that to happen, Holdsman needed people to buy into the $40 million foundation he was building.

Holdsman was able to forge a relationship with First Trust Bank and gain donations from the likes of Philly basketball legends Dawn Staley and Aaron McKie. Yet the lead donor on the project was Horwitz, the founder and chairman of Campus Apartments.

“Alan made a $5 million leadership gift,” Holdsman said. “That helped us really get going with fundraising and made a lot of people believers.”

Horwitz’s donation, along with his previous work within PYB, made him an easy choice for whom the facility would be named after.

Holdsman’s team failed on the first two attempts to secure a building. After seven years of searching, PYB finally broke ground in the winter of 2021, securing the facility in Nicetown.

“This was almost strike three. We failed on the first two properties,” Holdsman said. “This was way bigger than any one person and it just pleases me greatly that everybody is here to help us finish the race and finish this center.”

The main attraction for the center will be its seven basketball courts, which will feature six main courts and a seventh “early development” court for toddlers.

The facility will also house mentorship pods, multimedia labs, a cafe, an entrepreneurship center, a civic engagement arena, a gym, and a mental health oasis.

The center will host two tournaments in June, but it is still a month away from officially opening its doors, with a ribbon cutting on July 9. Once the doors open, Holdsman and Co. will enter phase two of their project.

“Phase two is a $20 million workforce development and economic opportunity generator,” Holdsman said.

The second building will focus on teenagers transitioning into adulthood. The building will include a skill building training academy, a community health center, and an entrepreneurship accelerator program.

“After a decade of hard work by literally hundreds of caring Philadelphians, we could not be more grateful and inspired to be opening our center,” Holdsman said. “We believe this amazing space, with a comprehensive array of programs, will help thousands of young people and families to self-determine in positive and powerful ways.”