The Black Business Hub is the missing link for transforming the Madison Region’s Black entrepreneurial community from disparity to prosperity. The Hub is both a physical SPACE and a place-based, Black-led entrepreneurial ECOSYSTEM and COMMUNITY.
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Featured Speaker: Dr. Ruben Anthony, President/CEO of Urban League of Greater Madison
Strategic Partner Spotlight: Doug Nelson, Johnson Financial Group
FEI Board President: Tiffany Scheller
The Black Business Hub will be the Madison region’s premiere enterprise center devoted to incubating, accelerating, and networking Black and other BIPOC entrepreneurs. The Hub is a 4-story, 80,000 square foot, state of the art center of commerce and entrepreneurism led by Black business owners and entrepreneurs. The Hub is strategically located at the southernmost gateway into downtown Madison, visible from the Beltline Highway, and located in the heart of Madison’s oldest multi-cultural neighborhood.
The Hub will be home to retail and other businesses owned by Black and other entrepreneurs of color ranging from start-ups to established business looking to expand and/or take on storefront locations for the first time. The Hub will also integrate mission-based commercial and retail uses including a wide variety of innovative economic and entrepreneurship activities including food, personal care, financial services, entertainment, technology, co-working space, a rentable commercial kitchen, and much more. The Black Business Hub Accelerator will offer a place-based system of entrepreneurial supports including loans, grants, technical assistance, networking, and more.
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The following six Guiding Principles for The Hub were developed by a team of nearly two dozen community advisors and collaborators to ensure that the Hub will embody, in all aspects, the following:
- Local Economy
- Mixed Use
- Non-Profit Ownership & Management
- Attractive & Agile Design
- Sustainability
Over the next few years, it’s estimated that the Hub will support a minimum of 100 Black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs, create or relocate over 150 jobs, create at least 250 temporary construction jobs, train Black real estate developers, and much more. Construction of the Hub is scheduled to begin in December 2021 and be completed for occupancy by the end of 2022.