The Strange Companies Behind Philly Mayor Cherelle Parker's campaign
Uh oh! | INVESTIGATIONS
EDITOR’S NOTE: Since its initial publication date, this article has been modified to be much more comprehensive in its coverage (updated as of 5/7/2025).
OK, YOU GOT US.
In the United States, there’s no single, unified legal definition of a “shell company” - please don’t sue, Cherelle! Also, dear reader, please note we use the term “shell” in a rather broad sense here to convey the idea that the businesses involved may have been used by larger companies or individuals who didn’t want to be associated with giving to a political campaign for whatever reason - this article is based on public records and does not assert that anyone named here engaged in illegal or improper conduct. Sneaky, maybe, but not unlawful. Our analysis should not be taken as anything more than speculation based on available data, and is intended to raise questions about campaign finance transparency.
That not withstanding, in total, we’ve identified $227,647.32 of now-Mayor Cherelle Parker’s 2023 campaign contributions which came from opaque, elusive, or strange donors. For anyone who’d like to look for themselves, Philadelphia campaign finance data is freely available here.
Swanson Street Associates
…is first on our list. Swanson Street was one significant donor to the Parker campaign, giving $37,600 in campaign contributions during 2023 - not exactly pocket change. Information on the actual Swanson Street Associates, however, is sparse. From PA business filings, the company has existed since 1987, with an address in Blue Bell, PA, which it used for its contributions to Parker’s campaign:
The Philadelphia campaign finance data itself didn’t list any occupation (what the company actually does) in its contributions to Parker - unlike other states, Pennsylvania campaign finance law does not require it do so - but Swanson Street did identify itself in it some of its other contributions, such as those it made to PA State Representative Marylouise Isaacson:
Here, it identifies itself as a real estate company. This is curious, since no website for Swanson Street Associates exists - something you might expect out of people looking to sell land in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country. Furthermore, only a handful of details could be found on any sales of property the company made since 1987. This is probably because the “Swanson Street Associates” is less of a real estate company and more a real estate consulting firm - the same consulting firm identified by PBS in 2019 as “a consultancy run by Ken Goldenberg, CEO of the Goldenberg Group.”1 The Goldenberg group is one of many firms that fought for the construction of the controversial new 76ers stadium in 2024, which Parker advocated so strongly for. According to Colin A. Jones, Executive Vice President, The Goldenberg Group:
“We are optimistic that once the Arena has been fully approved, it will be the catalyst that can transform not only Market East from City Hall to the river but that it will spur economic recovery across the city at large. In a city like Philadelphia, and in a corridor like East Market Street, opportunities like this are few and far between and when they present themselves, they just have to be capitalized upon for all the catalytic and synergistic potential they possess!”2
The Organizing Montross Group
Moving on - The Organizing Montross Group, sometimes misspelled as “Montress” in the filings, and which gave $120,000 to Mayor Parker’s campaign, is classified as a “foreign corporation” in its documents. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s “foreign” in the sense that it’s a company from outside the US -rather, it means it’s foreign to wherever its incorporated - in this case, Maryland’s jurisdiction. Meanwhile, their headquarters, which retains a separate address from the branch address used in the campaign donation, is registered with Washington, D.C. - legally separate from Maryland state. This is a key distinction, too, since the branch used for the donation is now defunct, with the “Forfeited” and “Not in Good Standing” statuses attached to it.
According the State of Maryland, a business with “Not in Good Standing” status means “the business entity is not in compliance with one or more Maryland laws that apply to businesses and their responsibilities in this State. Only business entities that are active can have a good standing status, so a business that has been voluntarily terminated will also show ‘not in good standing’ because it is no longer active.”3
Further, according the Maryland State, the property was classified as “Forfeited” for its “FAILURE TO FILE PROPERTY RETURN FOR 2019.” This is intriguing, given as this specific branch donated to Cherelle Parker’s campaign in 2023, almost 4 years after it was being chased by the state of Maryland to file its taxes:
The original company is notably NOT defunct, and is registered in the District of Columbia, as a for-profit corporation with no corporate address:
The registered agent is Incorp Services Inc, a corporation and LLC formation service - with no links to any traceable third parties. But looking up “Bernard Talmadge,” the incorporator, brings us to The Operations Group website, where it describes itself as a “campaign consulting firm” with arms in multiple states, and its headquarters down the street from the White House.
4C
Meanwhile, the entity labelled as simply “4C” and which contributed $26,997.32 to Parker doesn’t seem to exist at all - the listed contribution address is 7815 Woodmont Ave, Bethesda, Maryland, a vacant office building that housed a former Eagle Bank until 2021:
Loopnet.com indicates that the property went up for lease shortly before the closing of the bank branch, but doesn’t have data for when it went off market. The site states that the location was again open for lease in September 2023, which suggests someone may have occupied the bank at some point between 2021-2023. As lease information is not public information (compared to property deeds, which say who actually owns the property with the state), we can’t be sure who actually leased the building during that time, if anyone, and if it was the “4C” denoted in the campaign contributions data. We also can’t determine with any certainty where 4C is now - there are at least 14 active companies listed with “4C” in their name in Maryland, none of them with a Bethesda address, and all of them describing what they do in rather vague terms (aside from one sports equipment company). There were also a number of different “4C” groups that were listed on OpenSecrets.org as giving to political candidates. However, what seems most likely is that the “4C” in question is “4C Partners,” a major political consulting firm based out of Washington, D.C. that has raised millions over the years for Democratic candidates. Political consulting firms are known for having transient addresses.
Blythewood Associates, LLC
Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. Fourth-in-line was a Blythewood Associates LLC - an unknown company that gave $4,000 to Parker in 2023. The company lists, 801 Old York Rd, Ste 100, Jenkintown, PA, but no identifiable company under that name existed at that address, or anywhere in PA, for that matter. The company did not have an online presence or a website, but according to the Corporation Wiki, Blythewood is listed as an Apartment Building Operator. Looking through PA business records, this donor itself is actually a branch of a “Blythewood Associates, LLC,” incorporated in Delaware. Delaware is one state where company formation agents can also act as nominee directors, which explains why the parent company lists its only officer and address as the “Corporation Service Company” - an out-of-the-box, third-party LLC formation service:
This makes it rather difficult to tell who actually owns or runs Blythewood. A cursory Google search did find that data trawlers associated one property with the name of the firm, though - an apartment building in West Philadelphia. When we contacted the number listed, we were told that the property had changed hands between Blythewood and the Scully Company last year, a property management firm, according to the representative we spoke to over the phone. The 801 York Ave address of Blythewood is also shared by the Scully Company. Some sources list the Scully Company at this exact suite, raising the possibility that Blythewood Associates, LLC could be a subsidiary, partner, or tenant under Scully’s umbrella.
According to the state of Delaware, the parent company paid $0 in taxes last year, nor has it ever paid taxes (indicated by the last tax filing being “0”):
This doesn’t necessarily mean the company is a shell company in the conventional sense of the word, nor is it totally surprising given the fact that many Delaware LLCs pass tax burdens onto their owners, who would file them under a personal tax return (and thus making them not available to us). However, it also doesn’t help make the company any more transparent. A search of the Pennsylvania state UCC filings didn’t yield any debtors under the Blythewood name, but looking locally at property deeds, Philadelphia County had a number of filings connected to Blythewood, all related to 2991 W School House Lane (the same address we called):
These records also demonstrated extensive links to the Scully Company - all highly suggestive that Blythewood is an SPE, or a “Special Purpose Entity,” designed to control and manage the apartment complex at School House Lane - a common arrangement in real estate intended to reduce risk. What’s not common though, is the fact that Blythewood contributed to a political campaign - that’s pretty rare for SPEs, mostly owing to the fact that SPEs are essentially acting as pass-through entities for the “real” company, channeling revenue to their owners. The vast majority of campaign contributions come from operating companies or PACs - not passive, asset-holding companies like Blythewood. Such companies typically don’t have the cash flow for discretionary spending on things like donations. One exception to this, though, might be if a parent wanted to obscure the source of campaign finances.
KCI Partners, LLC
A similar company in Parker’s campaign contributions was KCI Partners - another, under-the-radar firm that gave a 580 W Germantown Pike address in Plymouth Meeting, PA, an address that looks like it was occupied by a Tower Health Urgent Care facility at least until 2024. KCI Partners, LLC., gave about $5,000 to the Parker campaign. There were no KCI Partners registered in Pennsylvania, but it’s possible that the KCI in question is related to the “KCI PARTNERS, LLC” of Delaware (company number 3592350), who, curiously, is also using the Corporation Service Company as their registered agent - this time, with no director listed. There was also a KCI Partners, LLC., registered in New Jersey, with the listed register date shortly after that of the Delaware corporation, which suggests the New Jersey company may be some kind of subdivision of the Delaware company. But based on the minimal information both of these filing provided, we could not establish definitively which company might have provided the funds to Parker - or who was behind the LLCs.
Strangely enough, though, examining property records for 580 W Germantown Pike shows that while the property is not owned by a “KCI Partners” outright, it is owned by a similarly-named “KCI BLUE BELL MEMBER LLC,” along with several companies with variations on that same name, as well as a “Mark G. Korman”:
Researching “Mark G. Korman” brings up a Mark Korman, President of Korman Communities, a real estate firm located in Montgomery County:
According to Philadelphia Magazine, Korman Communities also manages the Navy Yard, a large apartment complex at the south end of Broad Street in the city, and according to one NBC 10 article, was slated to partner in the building of a new, proposed 76ers arena in Penn’s Landing in 2020 before the proposal was shot down.
Since a lack of property records in Montgomery or Philadelphia County directly tied to KCI Partners, LLC seemingly rules out the company as an SPE, it’s unclear what its purpose might be here, other than our suspicion that it’s intended to distance KC from political donations.
Stenton Ave Realty, LLC.
Next in line was Stenton Ave Realty, LLC, who gave $31,956.07 to Parker in 2023. Despite its age (formed in March 14, 2019), and like most of the companies on this list, it had zero online presence. There were also no officers listed (not required under PA law). The address listed for the company with the Pennsylvania Department of State is the Aramark Building in Philadelphia, with a suite number host to a garden variety of law firms - this suggests that rather than a working base, the address listed in the company filings could be the address for the law firm that helped file the LLC’s papers, and now acts as its registered agent. It could also be host to a simple mail slot that the LLC could use for mailing purposes. Either way, it’s not very helpful in figuring out who’s behind the company.
A search of Philadelphia property records, though, brings up several Stenton Ave Realty documents related to a “8319-25 STENTON AVE,” a commercial office space in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. It appears that the property was acquired in 2019 by the LLC, and later financed in 2020 with a mortgage from TD bank:
On the mortgage, the manager of Stenton Ave Realty appears to be a Stanley Wiley - possibly the same Stan Wiley that’s the president of Dewitt Heating and Air Conditioning, and was recording as living in Bear, Delaware, the same location as the mailing address for the LLC on the 2019 deed. This is confirmed further down in the mortgage:
Could Dewitt being using Stenton as an SPE for managing the property of their locations?
Yes, but it doesn’t appear to be. As of March 2025, the office space was up for lease, and there was no evidence that a Dewitt office had ever occupied the property, from what we could tell.
Additionally, the mortgage that Stenton took out is what’s known as an “open-end” mortgage - a flexible loan secured by real estate, allowing the borrower to draw additional funds up to a set limit without refinancing, as long as the property’s value supports it. This means Stenton (or Dewitt) can tap the property’s equity repeatedly - ideal for cash flow, investments, or… donations.
Stenton Ave Realty LLC reads like a “shell” with a twist: it’s a real estate-backed donation. Such businesses sometimes buy property to leverage funds, then donate to influence politics when it suits them. Stenton’s apparent lack of operations beyond this transaction aligns with that pattern. It bought 8319-25 Stenton Ave in July 2019, borrowed $250,000 in 2020, and gave $31,956.07 to “People For Parker” in 2023 - all while invisible from a law firm suite with no operations. The property gives it substance, but the lack of activity and big political gift suggest it’s a vehicle to give donations on behalf of an unseen owner - holding an asset and throwing around cash. It would be more sophisticated than some of the others on our list, but the “shell” vibe holds: minimal presence, maximum opacity. In our view, the LLC could very well be a hybrid: a real estate holding acting as a vehicle for donations, with Dewitt as a financial anchor.
2019 E. Boston St., LLC
A company by the name of 2019 E. Boston St., LLC gave $2,000 to Parker’s campaign in 2023. At the risk of sounding like a broken record here, a search online for the company again proved fruitless. The company listed its address as 4001 Kennett Pike Ste 206, in Wilmington, Delaware. This is not particularly helpful, as the suite number at 4001 Kennett Pike is once again shared by a number of different corporations.
The agent/director for the company is listed as a Patrick J. Duffy, Jr. - who, according to OpenCorporates, is also listed as the officer for 8 other firms. Examining property records in Philadelphia County, it appears that the LLC owns - well, 2019 E. Boston Street, in East Kensington, Philadelphia. In 2020, the company was recorded as taking out a mortgage from CoreVest American Finance Lender - with open-ended terms - for a massive $34.94 million. This is 2019 E. Boston Street, by the way:
It’s a warehouse that formerly housed a “Urban Axe” - a competitive axe throwing franchise. It doesn’t look very impressive, but there are a handful of legit reasons why the company would take out a mortgage of this size for such a seemingly low-value property, including (very intensive!) redevelopment plans, collateral for other investments, portfolio leverage, and the like (the previously assessed value for the property was only $1-2 million). The mortgage is classified as a “construction mortgage,” which leans towards the idea of the LLC as managing major property redevelopment at the location. The address is also located in a federal QOZ, or “Qualified Opportunity Zone,” which offers developers tax incentives to build in financially distressed or run-down areas.
Examining maintenance agreements between the company and the city water department, it appears that a “Jay Freebury” is a member of the LLC - likely the same Jay Freebury of the Chatham Bay Group, a real estate development and construction management firm in Philadelphia. Backtracking to the company’s agent, Patrick Duffy, confirms this link - among his other listings, Duffy is listed on the company website as the founder and CEO of Chatham Bay.
As this company seemingly only has links to this one address, and appears to have relationships with the larger firm, it’s almost certainly another SPE, similar to Blythewood Associates - but that still doesn’t explain what it’s doing giving campaign contributions to mayoral candidates, rather than Duffy or the Chatham Bay Group themselves, as is more typical.
SMC Realty 18 LLC
Possibly the most obscure company on our list, the initial filing dates indicate that this LLC was first registered in August 2018. No registered agent existed on record; instead, the company once again chose to lean on the Secretary of State for correspondence.
No company under the “SMC Realty” name appeared to own any property in Philadelphia, aside from a handful of companies with similar-sounding names (the names listed on those deeds pre-dated the registration of the LLC by decades). The address listed on the donation, 221 Vine St, Apt 9, appears to be a residential apartment building:
If another SPE-like entity, it’s possible that SMC Realty used this address for mail because it manages the property. This theory seems unlikely, though, as Philadelphia property records list a “OR BSPRT 2022-FL8 SELLER LLC” (a bit of a mouthful, no?) as the owner of the property for several years, including during the 2023 campaign.
There was a similarly-named “SMC 51 Realty, LLC” in PA business records, possibly indicating that the LLCs are part of a series of purpose-specific companies. This company listed its registered address as 376 Fayette City Rd., out in Perryopolis, PA (about 40 miles outside Pittsburgh) and which, according to Google Maps, was an empty lot as of August 2023. This company also had no real digital or physical footprint.
The unremarkable donation amount of $250 doesn’t set off any alarm bells, and is well under the legal contribution cap - unless the company was a part of a ring of companies, potentially contributing small sums to avoid scrutiny, and as a collective contributing in a major way, as seen in elections in other states. With the minimal information we have on the company, though, this is just speculation.
Who the hell are these people?
Federal and Philly law ban corporate treasury funds from going straight to candidates, but LLCs can contribute if it’s their own cash, and not a parent company’s. In that respect, we’re not accusing any of these companies or Parker of any sort of illegal activity, and the opinions we present here are based on our interpretation of available public records - but we need to know more. Conveniently, almost all these companies are LLCs, meaning they’re not required by most state or federal laws to publish any internal documents for the public, including tax information, which could give us a better idea of what these businesses are up to. Most of these companies are likely special-purpose entities (SPEs) for a specific property or project, but a lack of transparency around their corporate details and the fact that political donations are atypical of SPEs raises some questions.
Before New York state banned LLC donations in 2019, firms like Glenwood Management used dozens of property-specific LLCs to pump millions into state races, skirting individual caps. Each LLC was an SPE for a building, but collectively, they amplified one company’s voice. Could this be a model elsewhere?
Donating to a campaign could be a strategic move by these real estate players, using the LLC as a vehicle to support a pro-development candidate like Parker without anyone realizing; Parker is tight with property development groups and building trades unions pushing projects like 2024’s failed 76ers arena.
SPEs or similarly shell-like companies giving $227,647.32 in total to Parker is suggestive of a larger pattern, not a fluke - unusual for SPEs, tied to Philly’s real estate-political nexus. It’s not clear evasion, as legal caps hold if spread across cycles, but it’s a creative flex. Companies might use SPEs this way: small, disclosed gifts from project profits, amplifying their voice without breaking the rules. Scale it to 20 SPEs at $6,200 each ($124K per cycle), and it’s a loophole worth watching.
Who knows? Who cares. And we didn’t even cover contributions during the 2022 primaries!
As Louis Brandeis once wrote, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”
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Eisen, Jake Blumgart. "Developers, Unions Fill City Council War Chests Ahead of 2019 Elections." WHYY, February 6, 2019. https://whyy.org/articles/developers-unions-fill-city-council-war-chests-ahead-of-2019-elections/.
City of Philadelphia. "Mayor Parker Shares New Details on Arena on East Market Street After Reaching Historic Agreement with the Philadelphia 76ers." Phila.gov, September 25, 2024. https://www.phila.gov/2024-09-25-mayor-parker-shares-new-details-on-arena-on-east-market-street-after-reaching-historic-agreement-with-the-philadelphia-76ers/.
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. Business Entity Status Document. Accessed March 8, 2025. https://dat.maryland.gov/businesses/documents/entitystatus.pdf.