The Lakeland Chamber of Commerce hopes to help minorities and other potential start-ups open shops in the city, and is seeking federal funding to lure the already established minority business associations into town. We are asking the City Board to approve up to $800,000 in American Relief Plan Act funds for
But the Chamber of Commerce may end up competing for funding with another city favorite, the Mayors Arts Council.
“The reason we are here today is because the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber Foundation have created a much more robust business ecosystem that allows our business to access the same services and resources as our competitors, Tampa and Orlando. Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Amy Wiggins told city commissioners at a meeting Monday morning.
Wiggins is joined by James Randolph and Albert Lee of the Tampa Bay Black Business Investment Corporation, founded 35 years ago to help minority business owners in Tampa, and Fabian Yepes, vice president of Prospera USA, founded 30 years ago. I brought Helping Hispanic business owners in Central Florida.
Services offered by both groups include seminars on starting and maintaining a business, links to funding sources, and even grants.
Former Lakeland mayor Gow Fields, who helped steer the formal request, recalled a time when both the Chamber of Commerce and the city council didn’t look like they do now.
“I first served on the board of the Chamber of Commerce in the late ’80s and early ’90s. It’s a different Chamber as long as it’s engaging and inclusive,” Fields said. “When I first joined the board, there was still the North Lakeland Merchants Association. I didn’t believe it, so I had to do a lot of work to make the incremental changes to the chamber.”
Fields said the Board of Directors of the Chamber Foundation wants to use the money and money from the city or county in a way that Publix Super Markets founder George Jenkins feels would like to do so. said. In 1973, Jenkins donated his $500,000 to form the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce Foundation, a non-profit organization separate from the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce. We are currently in the process of transitioning from private to public.
“Today we had the opportunity to bring the original vision he had to a new level of life,” Fields said.
Fields said he was chairman of the Minority Business Development Division of the Central Florida Development Council in 1989. After that, he tried to partner with his BBIC in Tampa.
“They were kind enough to accommodate me, but they told me that I-4 goes both ways and I could follow the road to get to them,” Fields said. “This is the first time we actually have them here. We are in a very different place than we were in the late 80s. If we can free up their expertise and resources to benefit our employees, we can do a great job for them.”
BBIC President and Chief Executive Officer Lee said BBIC is very interested in opening an office in Lakeland. , there was no solid technical assistance support in the community.
“What the Tampa Bay BBIC has been doing for 35 years is providing these services to these communities, and I think we have done it very well. We’ve made over $20 million in loans annually,” Lee said. “During this past year and a half, we have been able to push that needle further by providing approximately $3.5 million in approved loans to small businesses through our partnership with one of his banking partners. I did.”
He said BBIC is first and foremost a technical assistance provider, but also has the ability to provide financial capital from their own funds and link customers with banking partners.
“One of the things we discovered is that we need to understand why these individuals need capital and how to implement and use that capital,” Lee said. says. “I have been a banker for 25 to 30 years, mostly on the sales side of things, so I know that. One of the things we’ve learned from our experience with BBIC over the last 10 years is that a lot of people want to be business owners, they just don’t have that technical assistance together. In the community, people prefer to work with people in the community because they feel they understand their situation and they feel they can speak the language, and that’s what BBIC brings. think.”
BBIC Vice Chairman Randolph has owned a small business, Carolina Consulting Solutions, in Brandon for 27 years and knows how hard it is to start and maintain a business. If funded, he would serve as his BBIC liaison in Lakeland.
“I drove into Lakeland on Interstate 4 at 75 mph and saw a sign that said Lakeland. When I came back, I saw the same sign,” Randolph said. . “I finally got off the road and came here about two and a half years ago and started seeing what you were doing in this city. I was very impressed.”
Prospera Florida’s Yepes noted that over the past decade, Lakeland’s Hispanic population has grown by more than 34 percent, while Polk County’s population has grown by 82 percent.
“When you look at the changes in this area, we see a huge demand for our services,” says Yepes. “We provide one-on-one consulting for companies for business seminars. We support business grants — with services, not money. We also help access capital.”
Two years ago, in the early throes of the COVID economy, Prospero provided loans to a Lakeland day care business, Yepes said.
“They were affected and not only closed three locations, but they were able to remodel and build a fourth.” More Trust, How to Start and Do Business is increasing in difficulty. Clearly there is a language barrier. It’s always been very important and the difference between how business is done in the US and perhaps their country of origin. “
Fields added that the business owner had named the day care center company in the name of the minor child, a common practice in Latin America. could not lend money. Yepes helped solve the ownership issue.
He also said he will work with organizations such as Catapult and The Well, which are also business incubators.
The Commissioner put Fields and officials to financial questions.
Commissioner Bill “Tiger” Reid wanted to know if the money given to the corporation was a grant or a loan. Fields said those will be loans that need to be repaid.
“A common trope we’ve used in America is that people should stand up for themselves,” Fields said. “Well, if their boots break, someone has to step in and tell them how to fix the boots, including the bootstraps, so they can get down to pulling.” If you don’t have the boots of, we can help you identify how to do it, so you can help them pull themselves up by the same bootstraps, so they go a little deeper than the typical banking relationship. But there is no subsidy.”
Reed wanted to know who would be eligible for funding.
“I’m mostly a ‘no’ person — which means everyone knows I’m a difficult person to make money with,” Reid said. “I want to reach every citizen. I don’t want it to end up in a particular ethnicity or group, so I need assurance that it will go there, and everyone needs money, whereas not just Hispanics or women, etc. That’s the scope of the protocol. Are they internal or do your funds need to go to these different groups?”
Fields assured him that everyone was welcome to use BBIC and Prospera.
“Our approach is that we are open to everyone. We are not limited by race, membership, shape or form,” Fields said. It’s a shared thing: they attract people who are like them, they understand them better, but they don’t close doors to anyone.”
Commissioner Stephanie Madden asked if the proposed program would be a way to compensate for past systemic racial injustices in Lakeland. This included eminent domain and the demolition of Moorhead’s historic black neighborhood to build what is now known as the RP Funding Centre. erected a Confederate memorial in the town square. She asked if the program would make her community of commerce and businesses more diverse.
“I think the whole country has been soul-searching for the last six years. It’s been part of our conversation for decades,” Madden said. Looking back 10 years from now, this will be a pivotal time in the history of our community to ensure diversity is embraced and money is spoken. I’d say it’s the other thing that we went to, which is that we invested in. And is this something that’s going to have that effect, or is there another organization that’s here today asking for funding? And I’m trying to speculate if it’s just competing with the many other organizations that have been hit by COVID.”
Fields said that while the city board was considering moving the Confederate Memorial, which was moved to Veterans Park in 2019, Madden spoke about the segregated pool before his death, along with those who shared isolation stories. He said he got emotional when he heard it.
“If you’re going to build a home where anyone can come and have access to the resources they need, you have to lay the foundation first,” Fields said. If so, we don’t have a home. Because there is no base to sit on. Here he is with BBIC and Prospera, along with Chamber Foundation staff…and the ability to bring other personal gifts to the table. Without a foundation, the house you describe cannot be built. We will surprise you once the foundation is laid. We are asking you to help us lay the foundation. “
Mayor Shawn Sherrouse reminded the commissioner that there was another request for ARPA funding from the Mayors’ Council on the Arts.
Mayor Bill Mutz said the city council actually belongs to the city as a whole, with a $275,000 item in the city’s budget, the same amount it received last year and about $25,000 more than in previous years. But Council Chair Kelly Falwell plans to officially seek about a third of that for ARPA funding. She plans to speak with the commissioner at the next meeting scheduled for September 6.
“It will be for all the smaller arts organizations that lost a disproportionate amount of money during COVID that were members of the Arts Council last year,” Mutz said.
Sherrouse said staff are reviewing the request and may present and recommend options that can reduce or reduce some of the ancillary costs associated with certain resources for funding. is.
“So we are ready to have that discussion,” Sherrouse said. “There will probably be two presentations, followed by a discussion of funding sources and levels, and if the commissioner wants to allocate, it will probably be the first public budget hearing in the two hearing process in September. If that’s the pleasure of commission.”
Looking around at the commissioners, Mutz said they all seemed to be unofficially in favor of waiting for staff recommendations.
“I think we all agree,” Mutz said.
The next City Council meeting is September 6th, and budget hearings are scheduled for September 8th and September 22nd.
Kimberly C. Moore is an award-winning reporter and Lakeland native.she can be reached at [email protected] or 863-272-9250.
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