by Daniel Johnson
June 1, 2025
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Black Chamber of Commerce is looking to invest $3.7M into incubating and scaling its Black businesses.
Charlotte, North Carolina is one of the country’s premier cities when it comes to Black-owned businesses and a new effort from Cauthy Dawkins and other members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Black Chamber of Commerce is set to create a hub designed specifically for those businesses.
According to The Charlotte Observer, the chamber acquired an unused property and has poured resources into transforming the building into what Dawkins calls a “one-stop shop for professionals and small businesses,” in hopes of helping entrepreneurs, improving Charlotte’s economic growth, and fighting food insecurity.
The Innovation Center, as the property is now known, will feature an agri-tech program for farmers, event spaces for business meetings, co-working spaces for startups, entrepreneurs and nonprofits; as well as a retail store and a distribution center for small businesses.
To figure out how the space could be best utilized, Dawkins visited other cities with similar hubs, cities like Atlanta, Washington D.C., and nearby Durham, North Carolina, and what he came away with from those tours ultimately led him to create a first-of-its-kind hub for Black-owned businesses and professionals in Charlotte.
“As things in the community get taken away, like federal funding and grants, we want to be a safe space,” Dawkins told the Observer. “I wanted to create a safe space for business owners and professionals to come get elevated.”
The chamber spent approximately $30,000 to acquire the building, and is in the process of launching a $3.7 million fundraising campaign to attract funding for the necessary renovations in order to accommodate the chamber’s vision for the space.
According to two of the chamber’s advisors Kneshia Gabriel and Jeremy Johnson, the space has been needed in the city and the Charlotte metro area in general for quite some time.
“We just want to bring more locals here to help expand their experience and help them figure out what they want to do,” Gabriel told the Observer.
“It’s definitely needed and I can see it being a great resource and support system for those looking to thrive in the business community,” Johnson added.
According to the fundraiser for the Black Innovation Centerwhich is listed on the fundraising platform Give Butter, “Charlotte is evolving. Yet too often, Black entrepreneurs are excluded from the opportunities shaping its future. The Innovation Center–CLT is a bold response—designed to close the gap, elevate ideas, and drive inclusive innovation. We’re creating a dynamic space where: Black-owned businesses scale with real support, creatives build brands and media that move culture, communities grow wealth and networks—together. And your investment makes it possible.”
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