The Allapattah Collaborative CDC

The Allapattah Collaborative (TAC) prevents displacement of businesses from a historic, ethnic neighborhood in Miami through business resiliency training, hands-on technical assistance, advocacy and community engagement, and access to capital, particularly opening pathways to storefront ownership. Our grassroots organization was born out of a community-developed process. Our steering committee, separate from our Board of Directors, continues to be community-led and sets main goals for the organization.  

The processes and technologies we use are:

• Self-paced, online training combined with in-person one-on-one support

  • This training happens in cohorts, approximately 3-4 per year

• Small group virtual coaching

  • Weekly during active cohorts

• In-person training and networking events

  • Quarterly community-wide training “masterclasses” 

  • Additional workshops for our alumni

• Zoom

  • All participants are taught how to use Zoom

• Online banking

  • All participants are taught how to use their bank’s online tools

• Online accounting

  • All participants have access to in-depth training and technical assistance on Quickbooks online and internal controls, including inventory management

• Social media platforms (specifically Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

  • All participants have access to in-depth training and technical assistance on social media marketing and e-commerce

• Web development tools (specifically Shopify, Wix, Squarespace)

  • All participants have access to in-depth training and technical assistance on web development

Miami is in a pivotal, urgent state to either become equitable or lose the opportunity. Small businesses face displacement from neighborhoods as rents continue to increase, threatening small businesses in Allapattah especially. It has become an area of intense interest by real estate investors. A 2017 Urban Institute report, “Miami and the State of Low-and Middle-Income Housing”, claims it “may be on the precipice of tremendous change and gentrification.” Allapattah is targeted for speculation due to its proximity to Downtown, Edgewater, and Wynwood and relatively high elevation. 

Through surveys, research, and community engagement, TAC identified these challenges and opportunities:

• While 40% of small businesses own their storefront, 15% reported rent increases of $1000/+ month since 2016. Many attributed the sharp increase to new building ownership by investors newly interested in Allapattah.

• Minimal business/ financial training and lack of access to financial resources prevents business owners from purchasing their storefront and scaling their business. One had the opportunity to purchase his storefront in 2010 for $300,000. He had $100,000, but lacked access to capital and lost the opportunity to an investor who paid $450,000 in 2010, sold for $750,000 in 2017. In 2019, the property was valued at over $1 million. The business owner’s monthly rent increased from $2,000 in 2017 to $3,500 in 2018.

• Despite these pressures, Allapattah business owners are eager to continue to improve their businesses. 73% aren’t interested in selling and 69% seek to develop their business.

Our clients are small businesses–they are Allapattah’s heartbeat and our top priority. Their wellness and thriving is a key indicator of the health and sustainability of Allapattah. The single most significant deficiency our clients have is lack of infrastructure to support acquisition of commercial real estate. Through our program, access to capital has been provided, access and short-term assistance alone still places them in an incredibly vulnerable position–in constant threat of displacement and other gentrification forces, such as 100% rent increases, commercial slum lords, and inability to improve their building facades. We have already built and proven our business training model and its positive impact in business resiliency (100% of our clients have survived the pandemic). Thanks to the financial and internal controls, social media marketing, hands-on technical assistance, advocacy training, and access to capital we have provided directly to them over the past 2 years, these businesses are now stable. 

The next step in our solution is preparing these businesses for collective purchasing of their storefronts. We have designed a capital campaign and an acquisition fund to actively pursue the purchase of commercial real estate in the Little Santo Domingo commercial corridor and, through a community land trust model, create new pathways to storefront ownership. Funding like this would not only enhance our nonprofit’s capacity to manage this on behalf of clients and increase their purchase power, but also expand visibility for them and their plight, and create further opportunities for them to stay in place and flourish.

Allapattah is one of Miami’s oldest neighborhoods, a majority low-wealth, working-class, immigrant, minority community with a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial uses. 80% of residents are low- to middle-income renters. 2020 median income was $26,023 (Source: ESRI 2020, US Census Bureau 2021). Residents are 80% Hispanic, 18% Black; 75% foreign-born. Allapattah’s long-term resiliency and preservation, let alone an ability to create generational wealth, is threatened. A lack of viable, affordable alternatives to live and operate their business has forced tenants and residents out of the neighborhood.

The businesses we target are located in geographically LMI and ELI areas, as defined by Census Tract data targeted for revitalization/stabilization. Typically, 100% of our clients are LMI individuals and have small businesses that are family-run and family-owned, and those that are independent from any large corporate affiliations (not franchise-based) with annual revenue of $1,000,000 or less. We verify via intake forms, financial statements, anecdotal evidence and firsthand experiences.

Beyond the real estate appeal, as Miami positions itself to attract tech startups from disparately advantaged areas such as San Francisco and New York City, entrepreneurs of color in Allapattah are also vulnerable to new challenges such as innovation-economy gentrification, in which invisible assets such as intellectual property will begin to outpace and outweigh physical property such as real estate, even as developers, politicians, and financiers may likely seek to align themselves more with cash-ready out-of-towners seeking office space and entry points to capital and political power.

Florida

We invest most of our dollars and efforts on sustaining the businesses that exist because our goal is reviving a commercial corridor and ensuring its resiliency amidst one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets. However, attracting patrons to the corridor requires decreasing commercial vacancies and creating special events. We aim to attract to the corridor new businesses that complement existing ones, enhancing the curb appeal and/or diversity that already exists. Negocios Activos, a networking and masterclass series for small businesses, helps us in this area, supplementing our Small Business Resiliency Cohort, and we are planning to launch a new version to teach brand new entrepreneurs how to launch. We are also aware that tech businesses are needed, since these connect us to the broader Miami ecosystem, help diversify the industry portfolio and increase overall neighborhood economic resiliency. For these reasons, we have Allapattah Startups.

Our main challenge is the displacement and lack of opportunity that is eradicating Miami’s cultural neighborhoods. Our inputs are hands-on technical assistance for the existing businesses in the selected area through the Small Business Resiliency Cohort (SBRC), Negocios Activos, Broadening Access to Capital ($2.5 million secured since 2020), and Advocacy Training, as well as some specific new businesses that will enhance the vibrancy of the commercial corridor. 

The outputs have and will continue to be as follows:

• Up to date financial documents for each of our clients

• Technology-based accounting and bookkeeping systems in use at our client sites

• Social media platforms in use to sustain and increase both sales and foot traffic

• A collective acquisition fund that increases our clients’ commercial real estate purchasing power

• Advocating vigorously for equitable development, economic inclusion and social justice to retain the attention and commitment of policymakers 

The longer-term anticipated outcome is a vibrant Little Santo Domingo commercial corridor and tourist attraction that includes historically Dominican businesses, among others. These businesses will be housed in community-owned spaces that have survived displacement and cultural erasure, and now thrive along with the neighborhood that supports them. 

This is fully supported by our mission statement: “We implement placemaking techniques to foster identity, support wealth-building strategies for marginalized communities of color and advocate for policies and procedures that support equitable, comprehensive and sustainable community development.”

We currently serve 150 small businesses, plan to serve approximately the same number (150) a year from now, and potentially as many as 300 in 5 years.

Our commitment to low- and moderate income communities of color is expressly stated in our mission. Our stakeholders are small businesses, anchor institutions, residents, and community partners. Per the City of Miami Consolidation Plan, Allapattah’s central location in Miami-Dade County close to downtown, airport, and seaport, positions it for the City to further promote its community and economic development strategy–developing the Health District/Civic Center, revitalizing the Produce Market and creating a destination "Little Santo Domingo" neighborhood (named by City of Miami, 2003) to honor the Dominican immigrants who settled in Miami near Juan Pablo Duarte/Comstock Park. 

Decisions rely largely on policymakers. This working-class neighborhood was home to non-Hispanic white families pre-1950s. I-95’s construction through Overtown led to black families’ migration; Cuban immigrants arrived after the Revolution in 1959; Dominicans arrived in the 1980s-1990s. Allapattah is now home to residents from the Caribbean and Latin America.

TAC reflects, understands, is aligned with, and champions the neighborhood and its small-business-rich ecosystem. Its staff is culturally competent and representative of the community it serves. In fact, TAC is an organization that is a direct result of a community-driven process to create an Equitable Development Action Plan (EDAP) to target the retention and growth of legacy microbusinesses within Allapattah. The overall goal was to develop a region-wide collaborative pathway to equitable development without displacement, and that emphasizes policies and programs that benefit existing small businesses within the neighborhood. A Steering Committee composed of community members was born out of this, which supervises the work of The Allapattah CDC. While the Board of Directors leads the execution of the strategic plan, the Steering Committee designed the strategic plan and the EDAP. This organization is 100% community and place-based. 

We know the community because we are deeply involved in its fabric. Allapattah, its residents and small businesses, are the force that guides our work. Serving as this bridge between business and community, TAC ensures that Allapattah retains services, jobs and third spaces, the micro-businesses worth saving, strengthening, and preserving to keep our community thriving. There will continue to be huge benefits to the community, even as the need proves greater than originally anticipated because of the length of the protracted pandemic. TAC has earned trust through relationships with the small businesses, by providing direct assistance to businesses, and leveraging relationships with larger entities to bring additional know-how and capital.

Further, Miami’s neighborhood commercial districts often lack a champion or advocate to stem the tide of gentrification. A key strategy is the “Main Street Approach”, a proven place-based economic development strategy that values historic assets and robust community engagement. Main Street programs in communities of color face additional obstacles because organizations often lack capacity, local support, or funding to successfully launch a Main Street program. Taking lessons learned from our development and growth as a CDC, TAC aims to leverage its new Florida Main Street designation and relationships to create and extend this strong commercial revitalization model, direct support, and technical assistance, eventually, to other marginalized Miami communities of color. This will ensure equitable, comprehensive and sustainable community development to preserve Miami’s cultural heritage and ensure communities of color and commercial districts can authentically thrive.

In our community, relationships are the key factor in gaining trust and program buy-in; we know from experience and culturally competent practices which questions are taboo and might derail trust-building and gaining our businesses’ confidence in our aim to truly help them build more resilient businesses. We get to know them through canvassing, intake forms, 1:1 interviews, then programs respond to general needs through workshops (primarily conducted in Spanish, their majority native language), thorough review of financial statements, and tailored business and financial coaching. 

Each business receives a customized assessment and tailored work plan to strengthen individual longevity and resilience, address leadership challenges, and bring business operations, financial practices, digital inclusion into 21st-century, GAAP-grounded practices. We also look at individual legal challenges and bridge access to capital, helping bring businesses into sustainable operating models fully informed and supported in the face of threats, e.g., gentrification and cultural erasure.

Our primary goal this year is to help ensure small businesses become sustainable. Each business in our corridor represents a few families; at 300 businesses, we know that we’re impacting the lives of a few thousand people who depend on the income these storefronts provide. A vibrant commercial corridor increases quality of life for neighborhood residents (totaling ~55,000), and most profoundly, the homeowners whose property values increase.  

We’ll accomplish this through core programming–SBRC, Allapattah Startups, Negocios Activos–alongside continuing advocacy education, access to capital; ensuring their books are strong enough to apply for grants, loans, and eventually, mortgage applications. We’ll continue raising funds and advocating for small business resiliency and equitable development, working alongside local policymakers and decision-makers in key institutions, e.g., hospitals, financial institutions, funders, real estate developers, and residents to explore equitable development initiatives to pursue together. 

Within five years we plan to: 1) ensure we root a number of small businesses financially, physically and geographically, working with policymakers and financial institutions to help them create pathways to property ownership; 2) help businesses scale according to business plans by providing continued technical support and coaching. The vision is to make these businesses successful, resilient, and further grow the commercial district, after securing stability in the core commercial corridor. We’ve made progress connecting with key developers, foundations and ecosystem actors while positioning TAC to implement shared equity models; however, we still need technical assistance pulling everything together successfully to yield tangible, sustainable, wealth-building results for the community.

TAC Executive Director Mileyka Burgos-Flores is a nonprofit executive who has been involved in Allapattah's future since the early 2000s. She is a Dominican-American activist who's deeply rooted in the community. She is TAC's heart and soul and its impetus to prevent Allapattah from cultural erasure. 

Business Resource Manager, Santander Arguelles, is a Venezuelan immigrant, with an engineering background and extensive banking experience. His sisters are entrepreneurs; one is our client.  Santander is loved by clients because he is patient, caring and persistent. His efforts have brought them $2.5+ million dollars since 2020. 

Francesca Escoto, Director of Economic Development & Strategy, is a Dominican immigrant tech and art entrepreneur, born and raised in the same place where most of our clients grew up. Her success in the US inspires them. She brings extensive experience in business coaching and adult learning methodology.

Elysa DelCorto, MBA, daughter of Cuban and Mexican parents, is committed to public service (previously a Public Ally). She brings a blend of grassroots movement with operational sophistication to power mobilization efforts. 

TAC’s board  is intimately involved in its initiatives; the chair is a local business and real estate owner in the 17th avenue commercial corridor.  Board members have a range of experience: business owners, real estate developers, planning, small business coaches. Steering Committee is composed of community members, directly representing the people we serve.

Our expert advisors bring decades of expertise across urban planning, main street redevelopment, political advocacy, fund development.

Resumes are available upon request.

Being able to leverage capital in our community would be paramount for site acquisitions and the preservation of the community fabric. Because the forces of gentrification operate on a cash basis, we must be prepared to negotiate and advocate as financially-backed entities to create equitable community change. We are aggressively seeking and pursuing opportunities to generate funds to provide the material activation of plans and strategies that we have already invested in creating, but aren’t yet in a position to fully fund on our own. Being able to partner with Truist Foundation and MIT Solve would help us more quickly spark the Preservation Development Strategy and Capital Absorption Framework Pipeline we have developed into action, ensuring that the chief goal outlined in our founding charter, the Equitable Development Action Plan–preventing small business displacement–is more fully realized. 

This award would further enable us to position small businesses for successful futures, and ensure they can not only survive, but also to remain in the community and build wealth over time.

We must influence our elected officials in order to place the right resources and county-wide priorities in our community. We must also influence new incoming developers from elsewhere in and outside of Miami to see the benefits of, and adopt the practices, to develop in an equitable manner. In order to achieve that without the buying power of their traditional networks and funding structures, TAC must establish the leverage to accomplish that level of influence, and to  educate the community in how to undertake their portion of it. Most of what will ensure Allapattah is equitably developed and culturally preserved falls outside of the scope of TAC’s authority. We can rally the troops, engage, educate, convene, advocate, influence, and share best practices, but if stakeholders who hold the power to develop equitably aren’t willing to do so, that’s outside our scope of authority. We need partners and financial backing to help us win them over and band with us to elevate a shared call for change so we’re not out there as the sole amplifier and advocate for our constituents.

We seek capacity building and sustainability technical assistance around resource development, and to secure funding and support for implementation strategies and impact measurement. Via a NALCAB grant we’ll hire a Capital Investment Consultant to execute funding strategies and mobilize local resources and funding. We seek to learn from local and national investors and partners and mentorship from more established, experienced peers–particularly those who’ve secured multiple diversified funds to sustain this work long-range. We’ll prioritize learning and receiving peer-driven technical assistance from Center For Community Investment (CCI), Main Street America and NALCAB members whose best practices in equitable development and affordable housing initiatives can inform ours. 

We seek partners to help us significantly scale to match the need and urgency of our rapidly-being-displaced community, and have the experience and capacity to move real estate deals swiftly to keep community rooted in Allapattah. 

As we build community ownership using the Community Land Trust model, we seek to develop local best practices and resources to support and secure funding for holistic, inclusive community investment in CED (Community Economic Development) alongside peers like South Florida Community Land Trust while expanding our network of investors and partners who fit our model, goals, desired outcomes.