Ori Feibush

Early life and education

Born to a Jewish family, Feibush grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Dublin. He is a graduate of Temple University’s Fox School of Business and Management, and has lived in Point Breeze since 2006.

Real estate business

Feibush founded OCF Realty in Philadelphia in 2008. "Rather than setting up a traditional real estate office, ... Feibush borrowed a page from the orange-themed Internet bank, ING, and opened a café under the OCF brand at 20th and Federal Streets" in the neighborhood of Point Breeze where "visitors can use computers to check out his listings, or just use the wireless to work." He subsequently opened up two more OCF cafés in the Graduate Hospital and Fairmount neighborhoods.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Point Breeze's "almost overnight" transformation "from a forgotten corner of Philadelphia to an up-and-comer, with new houses, cafés and restaurants" has been "largely the work of two innovative, young, and sometimes controversial developers, John Longacre and Ori C. Feibush, who saw the area as a diamond in the rough and began buying vacant buildings."

"Lotgate"

In August 2012, Feibush spent more than $20,000 of his own money to clean up a derelict city-owned lot abutting a coffee shop he was opening in Point Breeze. 40 tons of debris were removed and the lot was transformed into a landscaped area with planters, wooden benches, and a redone sidewalk. The following month, the Philadelphia Daily News reported on Feibush's efforts as well as the city government's opposition to his actions. The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority accused Feibush of trespassing: "Like any property owner, [the authority] does not permit unauthorized access to or alteration of its property." In correspondence with Feibush, the authority threatened to take legal action against him and demanded he immediately return the property to the condition in which he found it. Feibush said he had taken matters into his own hands out of frustration that repeated requests to buy or lease that parcel from the city went unanswered over a number of years. Feibush said he took independent action only after a last ditch effort calling on the city to clean the roughly 30-year vacant lot failed to achieve results.

The story of the dispute between Feibush and the city government, which came to be dubbed "lotgate," quickly went "viral," garnering national and international media attention. The city ultimately relented, allowing Feibush to lease the property and maintain it as a public space until the city sells it.

In an editorial, The Philadelphia Inquirer said, "It’s clear that [Ori's] instincts were good in wanting to see an unsightly area spruced up. Indeed, how much better off would other city neighborhoods be if they were permeated by the same spirit? ... While one man's attempt to keep a vacant lot clean was unorthodox, it offers a reminder to City Hall officials that government needs to do a better job with the properties under its purview." Commenting on the dispute, Philadelphia magazine wrote, "Feibush might be a hero, because he did something that needs to happen more often in Philadelphia: He saw a mess. And he cleaned up the mess. This being Philadelphia, of course he’s in trouble."

Undeterred by his conflict with the city government, Feibush has continued to independently clean up vacant, trash-filled city-owned lots in Point Breeze. Within a year of "lotgate," Feibush said, "We've probably cleaned 40 or 50 lots this year."

Assistance with murder case

On January 21, 2013, police found Melissa Ketunuti, a 36-year-old doctor at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, dead in her Philadelphia home on Naudain Street near 17th Street. She had been bound, strangled, and set on fire. Two days later, the alleged murderer, Jason Smith, had been taken into custody. According to the police, "surveillance video from several stores in the area was crucial in helping to lead detectives to Smith." One of those stores was Feibush's OCF Coffee House at 18th and South Streets, which was around the corner from Ketunuti's home. Feibush searched through surveillance video from his coffee shop and other cameras he owned in the area. After finding "crystal clear video of [Smith] walking right past the coffee shop and looking at the cameras," Feibush alerted homicide detectives who were right outside his coffee shop. That night, Smith was arrested. Feibush said, "I honestly believe this guy would still be on the loose for a long time, if not forever, without video surveillance."

Candidacy for Philadelphia City Council

In November 2013, Feibush officially announced he would be running for Philadelphia City Council in the Second District against incumbent Kenyatta Johnson in the May 19, 2015 Democratic primary. The Second District "covers parts of Center City, South and Southwest Philadelphia, as well as the Navy Yard, and the Point Breeze neighborhood." Feibush has criticized Johnson "for what he says is a major disconnect with his constituents." According to Ori, Johnson "does not have a vision. He does not have a plan and collectively, constituents are frustrated with the path and direction of the city, the path and direction of the 2nd District."

Feibush and Johnson have had a number of disputes and incidents in the run-up to the election. In June 2014, Philadelphia magazine reported that Micah Mahjoubian, "one of the most connected players in Philadelphia politics" who had been serving as a political consultant to Johnson, attempted to enlist notorious local blogger and ex-convict Joshua Scott Albert to create, in Mahjoubian's words, "an anonymous blog that chronicles all the shitty things Ori does."

In June 2014, Feibush also filed a lawsuit in federal court "accusing Johnson of preventing him from buying two vacant city lots and thwarting his bid to build on a larger tract, both as political retribution." In an editorial, The Philadelphia Inquirer questioned Johnson's use of councilmanic prerogative, "an often-abused power," to block "Feibush's purchase of two derelict lots on a blighted block of South Cleveland Street in Point Breeze." Given the political rivalry between Feibush and Johnson, The Inquirer opined, "The unseemly appearance of politics at work here is bound to discourage productive development... Because Johnson's actions invite suspicions about his motives, he should back off and allow the Cleveland Street development. The best way for the councilman to keep his job is to push for policies that help Point Breeze realize its potential for everyone."

According to the Philadelphia City Paper, Feibush has unsettled Philadelphia's political class: "At root, their worry stems from the fact that Feibush is something very new in Philadelphia politics: a well-funded outsider who would rather burn down the political class than join it, and who has tapped into a wellspring of disgust with City Hall. That's a threat. That's the sort of challenge that gives lifelong pols the cold sweats."

Both The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News endorsed Feibush over Johnson for the Philadelphia City Council seat in the Second District. Johnson ended up winning by a nearly 2-to-1 margin over Feibush, who said the election effort so depleted his bank account that it impacted his company's ability to build new projects.