# Fairhill: Asian Business Struggles on El Centro de Oro

![](https://philadelphianeighborhoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/DPP_0001-300x199.jpg)Molly Chen filed paperwork at Sylvan Professional Nails, an Asian business operating in a Hispanic business development district. The Sylvan Professional Nails salon, located on the 2900 block of North Fifth Street, is an anomaly in the Fairhill neighborhood. Located on the commercialized *El Centro de Oro*, the center of Philadelphia’s Hispanic community, is the salon and an Asian-owned business, which opened a mere two months ago. The business keeps its doors propped open, letting the loud ethnic music from the streets waft into the empty salon, a stark contrast from the vibrant scene outside. The Hispanic Association of Contractors and Enterprises designated the area of Fifth Street where Sylvan is located as a center of economic development for the neighborhood which, according to their neighborhood development plan, wished to create a “stronger Hispanic identity.” The street was to be the “primary Latino commercial corridor in Philadelphia.” On this Latino commercial corridor is Sylvan Professional Nails, an Asian-owned business, which has failed to receive the business of the local community. According to the U.S. Census, 7.8 percent of businesses in the city of Philadelphia are Hispanic-owned, while 9.6 percent of businesses are Asian-owned. Contrary to HACE’s goals, salon employee Molly Chen said there have been few new businesses in the area, and business has been slow.