With reporting by Emily Piette
A Central District community centerpiece — and a great place for a haircut, Earl’s Cuts and Styles is looking for fundraising help as it moves to a new location in the inclusively planned affordable housing development, the Liberty Bank Building, named to honor the region’s first Black-owned bank that once stood at the corner of 24th and Union.
For owner Earl Lancaster, the fundraising effort is about being able to handle the pile of costs that stack up when running a small business and trying to pull together a move to a new location after years of business at the soon to be demolished Midtown Center.
“The fundraising campaign will cover the odds and ends, helping with some new equipment since a lot of my equipment is older and making sure I have enough running capital for the move to go right,” Lancaster said.
The campaign has so far raised around a third of its $5,000 goal.
For Wyking Garrett, CEO of Africatown who helped manage the effort to recruit Black-owned businesses to the Liberty Bank project with Capitol Hill Housing, the fundraising isn’t a sign that inclusive development at 24th and Union isn’t working.
“It’s a great opportunity for the community to really support and invest in a community treasure,” Garrett said.
But the leader of the nonprofit dedicated to economic development and maintaining and growing a Black presence in the Central District said more, indeed, needs to be done for small businesses facing displacement, and Black and minority business owners facing soaring costs.
The old Earl’s
“There are many challenges that small businesses and Black owned businesses face in starting and sustaining,” Garrett said. “That is the very reason that Liberty Bank was started — to increase economic mobility. Those issues live into today.”
The Liberty Bank Building, a six-story, 115-unit affordable housing development, opened in March. That Brown Girl Cooks will also be part of the mix as the development has emphasized recruitment of Black-owned businesses. Construction of the building was a boost for minority contractors with more than 32% of the work — nearly $5 million worth — going to Minority, Women, and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise-certified providers on the project including artists hired to work on the building. 17.9% are African American contractors providing $2.8 million to Black-owned businesses, according to Capitol Hill Housing.
Lancaster says that the Liberty Bank Building’s backers have provided a great deal of help and even the developer set to tear down Midtown and redevelop the property stepped up by providing a temporary location for the shop while it waits for its new space in the Liberty Bank Building to be ready.
“Lake Union Partners is making the move easier for me by allowing me to set up a pop up shop in one of their spaces,” Lancaster said, “It was very convenient to have a pop up spot in their building as opposed to looking around the Central District for a temporary place.”
Lake Union Partners is preparing Midtown for a major new development that will create a set of seven-story apartment buildings with more than 400 apartment units and thousands of square feet of new retail.
Earl’s was initially planned to move into the Liberty Bank Building in March, but the move was delayed until July so the space would be fully ready to operate as a barbershop once Earl’s moved in. Lancaster said Capitol Hill Housing has been attentive to his business’s needs, making sure the final move will be smooth.
Lancaster says the crowdfunding campaign will cover expenses associated with moving permits, changing the shop’s address multiple times while advertising, and purchasing new barbershop equipment, an update Earl believed was necessary regardless of relocation.
Garrett says the moment is an opportunity for the community to invest in an important asset.
“With this type of campaign, it allows an individual make a direct action,” Garrett said. “It doesn’t stop us from advocating for policies.”
“It is an easy lift for people to be part of.”
Lancaster says he is proud to set an example for other small, Black-owned businesses in the Central District.
“It’s been a wonderful experience working with all the entities nearby and having hands on this project,” he said. “I hope it works out for future people coming up behind me planning to open small businesses in the Liberty Bank Building and the rest of the Central District.”
Earl’s Cuts and Styles is slated to move into the Liberty Bank Building to begin July. Learn more about Earl’s crowdfunding campaign at gofundme.com/earlscutandstylesrelocate.
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What additional costs do a black or minority business owner face that any other business owner is exempt from?
None, but feel free to donate because this is a solid business with strong, long lasting ties to the community that is just asking for a little help from the neighborhood it has so well served over the years. I did.
Doesn’t Earls already pay below market rent at the Liberty Bank Building?
And apparently they require donations to buy necessary equipment?
And apparently they deserve all this special treatment and coddling because of the critical hair cutting services they provide?
We would be so unkempt without them!
Smells like a non-viable business scamming the goodwill of the community.
This is all just so head-shaking.
What’s so head shaking is your lack of awareness about Earl’s in the “community” you seem to know oh so much about.
I hope you don’t loose a hand setting off fireworks tonight. It’d be a shame to loose your commentary on posts.
Completely agree PD.
Blown away by quotes like ““The fundraising campaign will cover the odds and ends, helping with some new equipment since a lot of my equipment is older and making sure I have enough running capital for the move to go right.”
So… he is asking for donations to help keep the business viable. Good luck, brah. And huge red flag to any of you bleeding hearts dumb enough to donate to this. He’ll either be back in 12-18mo asking for more help or shutting down completely.
What a joke…
Cool story, brah.
Yeah, I don’t really understand what this is all about.
It’s all just so head shaking, since my business is, you know, required to be profitable in order for it to survive.
And also by business (I run a consulting firm) is required to pay out regular expenses for equipment and services that support the business.
For example! If I need new laptops and/or desktop computers for myself and my employees…I need to purchase them with company funds or finance them using the company line of credit.
This is called “being a business.” I don’t, for example!, start a Gofundme drive in order to buy equipment that I NEED TO RUN MY BUSINESS.
That is called a “non-viable business” and, in that case, my business should just die.
Why is this different for Earl’s? Because….well because—apparently!—reasons? Oh, and of course my pointing out that a business which requires (!!!!!!!) donations in order to remain viable is not, in fact, a business will doubtlessly be taken and proof of my discriminatory intent because—and!—reasons!
This is all just…I don’t even know.
And all this is even worse because the Midtown redevelopment was put on hold for ages and ages and ages because Earl’s was on the block and was/is treated as if it’s a “community institution” that simply MUST be saved, even if that means subsidizing the business ad infinitum.
I mean…why am I the only one who sees this as a problem?
No one commenting here seems to be registering that many “viable” businesses would go out and get a loan to cover these types of expenses, but as a black small business owner, Mr. Lancaster may not have easy access to that type of funding and is instead turning to his community. From the link below:
“Minority-owned firms are much less likely to be approved for small business loans than white-owned firms. And, even if they do get approved, minority-owned firms are more likely to receive lower amounts and higher interest rates.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2018/01/22/why-minorities-have-so-much-trouble-accessing-small-business-loans/
This reminds me of a butterfly coming out of it’s cocoon. It struggles and looks painful. However, if one helps the new butterfly, once freed, it will fall to the ground and die because it didn’t stretch and strengthen it’s wings in the act of freeing itself.