BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — For years, technology entrepreneur Cindy Hill has described the Brooklyn Park Small Business Center as a “hidden secret” — a place that impresses people once they walk through its doors but remains unknown to many of the entrepreneurs it was created to serve.
“I’ve been telling people for a long time, we have this hidden secret in Brooklyn Park,” Hill told Mshale on Thursday. “And we just need to start sharing it.”
The City of Brooklyn Park is now trying to do just that.
City officials on Thursday formally launched BUILD in Brooklyn Park, a new partnership with the Small Business Center aimed at raising its visibility and making it easier for entrepreneurs to find technical assistance, capital, business education, mentorship, networking and other resources.
The initiative comes as the taxpayer-supported center, which opened in 2023 at 7970 Brooklyn Blvd., seeks to increase occupancy and revenue after a bumpy start that has required continued financial support from the city.
Community Development Director Tim Gladhill said Thursday that the idea for BUILD grew directly from the realization that many people simply did not know the Small Business Center existed.
“This actually started as a realization that this space that we’re in right now, the Brooklyn Park Small Business Center, was really unknown in our own community,” Gladhill said.
He said city officials heard stories of people traveling from communities west of Brooklyn Park, driving through the city on their way to coworking spaces in south Minneapolis. When operators of those facilities asked why they weren’t using the Brooklyn Park center instead, Gladhill said the response was often: “What is the Brooklyn Park Small Business Center?”
“We aim to really change that,” he said.
The 25,000-square-foot center occupies part of Northwinds Plaza, which the city purchased in 2021. It offers coworking desks, offices, conference and training rooms, wellness space and retail suites where entrepreneurs can test brick-and-mortar businesses.
In April, the center had about 118 members and was roughly half occupied, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. The city was covering an annual funding gap of about $100,000 to $200,000, and officials said they wanted to raise occupancy to at least 80% and eventually make the center self-sustaining. The city spent about $4.5 million building out the center using grants, tax-increment financing revenue, $1 million in federal funding and other city dollars.
Gladhill did not provide updated occupancy or revenue figures Thursday, but said the center has made progress even before the formal launch of BUILD.
“We are already at an all-time high for occupancy and revenue growth in this center,” he said.
Gladhill also acknowledged the public investment required to operate the center, saying the city is using public dollars to support its operations and buildout even though running such a facility is not traditionally considered a core municipal service.
But he said city officials view the investment as important to Brooklyn Park’s residents, businesses and tax base.
The city said it will invest in staffing and other support for the Small Business Center as part of the new BUILD partnership.
‘Once I came through the doors’
For Hill, who has lived in Brooklyn Park for 37 years, the center’s potential was apparent before it opened.
Hill said she knew about the project from its inception and attended the center’s grand opening intending only to purchase a basic membership. Seeing the facility changed her mind.
“Once I came through the doors, I said, I need to move one of my businesses in here,” she said.
Hill moved PSI Tech Support, a five-year-old technology company she founded and majority owns, into the center. She and her husband also founded Programming Solutions 37 years ago, a technology company that develops customized systems for state and federal government clients.
Hill said decades of running businesses made her want to use her presence at the center to help entrepreneurs just starting out.
“I knew that I had something to give back to the people that were just starting out from the bottom,” she said.
That has included advising other entrepreneurs on business plans, forecasting, certifications, insurance, licensing and marketing.
Hill recalled helping a woman who operated a tea business a few offices away and sought her advice about marketing and online sales. Within about six or seven months, Hill said, the entrepreneur had gotten her products into her first grocery store.
“It helps when you see people that look like us, especially a Black woman that has been in business so long, to let them know, don’t give up on it,” Hill said.
She said people she brings to the center are often surprised by how much exists beyond the lobby and training area.
“Once you bring them on the other side of the wall, that’s when their eyes light up,” Hill said. “I didn’t know that this was here. Tell me more.”
A newcomer finds visibility
For Jannie Seibure, the Small Business Center’s appeal is much newer.
Seibure, who is originally from Liberia, moved her business, Cavala Travel and Tour, from Brooklyn Center to the Small Business Center about a month ago.
The travel agency provides travel services and sells luggage and other travel-related products. Seibure said the Brooklyn Park location has given the business something particularly important to a small company: visibility.
“It’s a strategic area,” she said. “As you can see, it’s highly populated and it draws traffic.”
Seibure said being surrounded by other entrepreneurs also exposes her business to people coming into the center to visit other companies.
“I see it as a networking collaboration of businesses that are in here,” she said. “So my business becomes more visible to all the clients that come in to meet their businesses.”
She said she is also discovering resources available to small businesses through the city.
“I’m loving it so far,” Seibure said.
That type of awareness is precisely what state Rep. Huldah Momanyi Hiltsley, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said the new initiative needs to create.
“Bringing resources home is only half of the question,” Hiltsley said during Thursday’s launch. “Because if somebody doesn’t know that those resources exist, they won’t even tap into those resources.”
Hiltsley, whose district includes the Small Business Center, said entrepreneurs need trusted community leaders who can tell residents that the center is a place where they belong and where their voices matter. She said BUILD could strengthen connections among entrepreneurs, community organizations, government, nonprofits and the private sector.
‘When our entrepreneurs succeed, Brooklyn Park succeeds’
Mayor Hollies Winston said the initiative is built around what he called a simple idea: “When our entrepreneurs succeed, Brooklyn Park succeeds.”
Starting and growing a business, Winston said, requires entrepreneurs to navigate financing, permitting, marketing, technology, workforce issues and finding customers.
“Through this partnership between the City of Brooklyn Park and the Small Business Center, we are working to bring resources, connections, technical assistance and opportunities closer to the entrepreneurs who need them,” Winston said.
He said strengthening small businesses is also part of the city’s effort to address economic disparities and position local entrepreneurs to benefit from future development, including Brooklyn Park’s planned BioTech Innovation District.
The city expects that development to bring thousands of jobs and significant construction activity, and Winston said Brooklyn Park needs a foundation of local businesses capable of participating in those opportunities and bringing the benefits back into the community.
Winston acknowledged that establishing the Small Business Center and other new economic-development efforts has not always been smooth.
“I know it’s been a little bit of a road and sometimes it’s bumpy,” he said.
But he said the ultimate measure of BUILD will not be how many programs the city offers.
It will be “the businesses we help grow, the jobs we help create and the opportunities we help open for the people who call Brooklyn Park home.”
Author
About Tom Gitaa, Editor-in-Chief
Born and raised in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa, Tom is the Founder, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Mshale which has been reporting on the news and culture of African immigrants in the United States since 1995. He has a BA in Business from Metro State University and a Public Leadership Credential from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He was the original host of Talking Drum, the signature current affairs show on the African Broadcasting Network (ABN-America), which was available nationwide in the United States via the Dish Network satellite service. On the show, he interviewed Nobel laureates such as 2004 Nobel Peace prize winner, Professor Wangari Maathai, the first woman from Africa to win the peace prize and heads of states. Tom has served and chaired various boards including Global Minnesota (formerly Minnesota International Center), the sixth largest World Affairs Council in the United States. He has previously served as the first Black President of the Board of Directors at Books for Africa. He also serves on the board of the Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium. He has previously served two terms on the board of the United Nations Association. An avid runner, he retired from running full marathons after turning 50 and now only focuses on training for half marathons.
- Web |
- More Posts(505)
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...
