June 17, 2025
Today’s speakers help lead a Durham-based organization that over the last 40 years has grown to create opportunity for business success and community stability in minority communities. The news, if there was some, was that this National Institute of Minority Economic Development, which has long had outposts in Charlotte, will soon have a permanent home at 916 West 5th Street to pursue its work.
People trying to grow a business and those harboring dreams of creating one will learn much by watching the video below about a group that has training, advice and capital ready to help.
Describing the multiple layers of the Institute’s work were Kevin J. Price, President & CEO; John F. Ham, Vice President, Center for Strategic Partnerships (CSP); Rocio Gonzalez, Executive Director, Women’s Business Center of Charlotte (WBCC); Cleve Jenkins, Commercial Loan Officer, Institute Capital (ICAP); and Angela N. Mauldin, Community Economic Development, Network Director, Institute Community Development Initiative (ICDI).
Contact info is on the Institute’s website.
CEO Kevin Price outlined how, over the years, the Institute had absorbed other organizations to serve Institute clients’ needs. The effect, he said, has been to create a one-stop shop for business owners with questions but also those eager to have another option than commercial banks when looking for capital to grow.
Cleve Jenkins said that, by setting its lending and capitalization requirements just below those set by commercial banks, the Institute has a niche serving promising businesses that would not otherwise have access to capital.
Asked about the Institute’s participation in business development in Charlotte’s Corridors of Opportunity, Price in effect said, something’s coming real soon. He added at another point that Institute programs would broaden their reach by adding a focus on assisting groups build and finance affordable housing.
The Durham-based Institute, after many years of hopscotching Charlotte in leased offices, paid $2.6 million in October 2024 for the 1972 building on Fifth Street.
The building was designed by Charlotte architect Harvey Gantt. As an Institute release noted in April on the occasion of its “grand opening,” the building was built for “African American attorney Edmond Johnson, who used it to incubate minority businesses – a mission that now comes full circle.” Gonzalez said the real opening awaits the September or October repair of an elevator.
The Institute is a multistate institution. Not all of its $9.8 million in 2024 loans and other access to capital came to Charlotte entrepreneurs. But putting down roots on West 5th Street may be the best way for the group to signal to Charlotte that it has been here for years, and plans to stay for years.
Just as soon as the elevator gets fixed.
Below this morning’s video are materials from today’s presentation.
First is a two-page brochure for the services available at the Women’s Business Center of Charlotte (men served as well). Below its two pages is a scannable QR symbol for further information. The brochure may be downloaded as a PDF file here.
Second are the the slides from the group’s presentation. The slides may be downloaded as a PDF file here.
