Black Wall Street among owners of revitalized Washington Square properties

KALAMAZOO, MI — A part of the city that was known as the home to a strip club and adult book store now houses a variety of businesses including restaurants, a cupcake shop and a winery.

The Kalamazoo County Land Bank Authority recently announced that properties at Washington Square, located in the Edison neighborhood, are now fully occupied with currently operating or soon-to-open businesses.

In addition to Washington Square’s already established businesses — which include Tremolo Instruments, Community Promise Credit Union and Kzoo Nutrition — the district now welcomes several other new businesses.

Black Wall Street is the new owner of 1311 Portage St., home to the recently-opened Twine the Urban Winery, which represents Michigan’s first black female-owned winery, the land bank said in a news release.

Washington Square also welcomes Ty’s Joint, a restaurant featuring southern cooking at 1301 Portage St., Layla’s Cool Pops, 1336 Portage St., and soon-to-open KPEP’s W & P Diner to open across the street at 3100 Portage St., the news release states.

“It’s amazing what’s going on in Washington Square right now,” said Tammy Taylor, director of the Edison Neighborhood Association. “It was a long time coming from having it be the adult business district to making it a truly vibrant, family-friendly retail shopping area. As a neighborhood, we are strong on diversity.

“To have Black Wall Street there is awesome,” Taylor said. “Just awesomeness.”

Black Wall Street Kalamazoo strives to increase awareness and visibility of Black business in the community, according to the group’s web site.

“Our mission is to be a collaborative initiative to strategically increase the lifespan of the African American dollar within the African American community, through social, marketing and educational experiences,” the group’s website states. “Working in collaboration with local community as well as national organizations to support their mission, share, collect and leverage resources for the benefit and empowerment of the African American Community.”

“Family-friendly” and “diversity” were qualities topping residents’ wish list for the resurgence of Washington Square, which over the years has been through many incarnations and has been the subject of many community visioning sessions and workshops, the land bank said. With the goal of a sustainable, vibrant, community-oriented commercial district, the land bank worked closely with El Concilio and ENA to partner on block-wide events to provide a welcoming and inclusive space for residents to enjoy and shape the future of Washington Square, the land bank said.

With information from residents, the land bank raised money to improve the spaces and launched a tenant incubation program whose goal was to attract small businesses that were reflective of the neighborhoods diversity and were committed to actively participating in the efforts of the block to achieve sustainable occupancy, according to the release.

Women-owned, resident-owned and Latinx-owned tenants joined the program over the years and were able to occupy spaces, growing their businesses and supporting neighborhood goals.

“When the Land Bank acquired the Washington Square property, they reached out to us to be involved in efforts to recruit tenants. They also started the important work of raising funds to renovate the spaces and investing to make sure they could be used for different community businesses,” said Adrian Vazquez, Director of El Concilio. “In the last five years, there has been more activity.”

The area is welcoming to walk and is a source of pride for the neighborhood, he said.

In January, Nicole Triplett opened Twine the Urban Winery by the Roche Collection, which will be going to market with its wines in October at 250 Meijer stores.

She said COVID offered new business owners like herself the time and support to work on her business dreams.

“Kalamazoo has been very supportive of the idea of an urban winery in the Washington Square neighborhood,” Triplett said. “One of the most valuable things about the location is that Kalamazoo is willing to support the area again to see it grow and to go somewhere that might be outside of their comfort zones.”

She added, “The Land Bank recognizes the need to make financially sound decisions that are focused on the community, and how best to set the community up for success.”

Black Wall Street Kalamazoo purchased 1311 Portage St. — home to Twine, Kzoo Nutrition and Community Promise Credit Union — and is going to take a year to study how to employ best practices to use the commercial property, Triplett said.

Triplett is also the founder of Black Wall Street Kalamazoo.

“We want to use the property in a way that will be most beneficial to minority business owners with a specific focus on the Black entrepreneur who is struggling most within the Kalamazoo community,” she said. “We want to strategically partner with other organizations and private foundations to provide this support.”

Tyrone Griffis, who recently purchased 1301 Portage St., the former location of Pho on the Block, has reopened the storefront as Ty’s Joint, a restaurant featuring southern-style cooking.

“Ty is awesome, his staff is sweet and the food is absolutely amazing,” Taylor said.

Across the street, KPEP’s long-awaited W & P Diner, named to reflect Washington and Portage and with a nod to its first venture, W & P Café, is poised to open in September after many unexpected delays due to COVID-19.

The diner will include traditional fare, along with rooms available for rental.

Also now open on Washington Square is Layla’s Cool Pops, a business launched by teenage entrepreneur Layla, whose sweet baked-good business was inspired by a fourth-grade economics project.

Located at 1336 Portage St., Layla’s is a nonprofit that supports her Sweets4Homelessness Initiative, designed to work with local community organizations committed to providing financial support for the purchase of homes. Products can be purchased online at https://laylascoolpops.com/.

To increase outdoor dining opportunities, the alley between W & P Diner and Layla’s Cool Pops is also undergoing renovation, including painting, landscaping and lighting.

“We are delighted to see Black Wall Street, Nicole Triplett and Tyrone Griffis as new entrepreneurs in Washington Square partnering with us to pick up the baton and step into property ownership of two key buildings,” Land Bank Executive Director Kelly Clarke said. “Since we began our work in Washington Square, our desire has always been to forward resident goals and allow resident vision to be created.

The recent sale of land bank properties marks a milestone for Washington Square as the community struggled to bring businesses to the area since the former Déjà Vu strip club and associated adult book store on Portage Street was relocated via a community effort in 2005, the land bank said.

Related: Relocation of strip club hasn’t spurred renewal for Kalamazoo’s Edison neighborhood

After that relocation, more than half of the block’s buildings sat vacant. The Great Recession compounded the challenges of attracting tenants alongside a number of building needs. The county land bank stepped into property ownership at the community’s request, in 2013, to work alongside the community to achieve occupancy in several vacant buildings.

“Our goal was to approach the effort so that the transformation would be equitable and serve the neighborhood desires,” Clarke said. “The two new property owners and business ventures are such a great fit for a neighborhood that is so proud to be the most diverse neighborhood in the city.”

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