Sherman Phoenix Foundation looks to spread its wings in 2024

When Juli Kaufmann and JoAnne Sabir teamed up in late 2016 to redevelop a fire-damaged bank in a riot-ravaged section of Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood, their main goal was to use the space simply to open a second location for Sabir’s burgeoning Juice Kitchen.

Sabir had worked with Kaufmann to open the wellness-focused juice business in a building that Kaufmann had redeveloped in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood. But following a New York Times article featuring Sabir’s family and their choice to invest in the north side, the pair felt a pull to answer a call from an alderman to open a Juice Kitchen in the section of Sherman Park most battered by the civil unrest that had taken place following the fatal police shooting of Sylville Smith.

“Help us,” the alderman reportedly told Sabir’s husband in a message, “be the Phoenix that rises from the ashes.”

Looking back at that first visit to the charred BMO Harris Bank branch at North 36^th Street and West Fond du Lac Avenue eight years ago, Kaufmann said she and Sabir had no clue that the seed they were planting would blossom into the buzzing marketplace and entrepreneurial community hub that anchors the commercial district today.

“When we launched the Sherman Phoenix, we had no vision of what it has become whatsoever. We just wanted to open a Juice Kitchen there,” Kaufmann said.

But even though the full vision wasn’t there at that time Kaufmann believes that with the purpose both women felt about the effort, planting that first seed was enough.

Fast forward to January 2024, and the venture that was first envisioned as a home for one business, has helped give rise to 46 businesses – 89% of which are still in business bucking national trends that show only 20% of black businesses last more than 18 months.

Marking their 5-year Anniversary this past November, the Sherman Phoenix, and the Sherman Phoenix Foundation that recently took over the reins of running the marketplace, is ready to do even more in the community, as it continues to be a national model for similar projects in the state and across the country.

Supporting the work

Sitting in a second floor conference room – just one of the many spaces in the 97-year-old, 4,800-square-foot building – Stacia Thompson, PhD, the executive director of the Sherman Phoenix Foundation, gets a determined glow when talking about the nonprofit’s mission.

“The reason our model works is because it’s intentional,” she says. “You’re not just a tenant here. You’ll rarely hear me refer to the businesses in the building as tenants. I refer to them as the business owners, because there’s not a tenant-landlord relationship here. If you’re in any other commercial building, when do you typically hear from your landlord? Or when do you typically hear from your tenant? When it’s time to collect rent or if there’s a problem. But the relationship here is different. My role actually in the foundation is to be there for the business owners. So that they can come and say, you know what? This is what I’m struggling with, or I can really use some help with this. Or could you connect me with a subject matter expert that does this?”

As Thompson and other leaders in the foundation look toward the future, part of what they will be focusing on is expanding that relationship building – and those key entrepreneurial and support services – outside the four walls of the Sherman Phoenix building.

“The foundation was formed in 2020 to create sustainability for the impact programming. So, essentially what we’ve been responsible for is continuing to support the business owners by offering and creating those opportunities for the coaching, for the supportive services and the other programming that happens here,” Thompson said. “What we’ve been able to do now because of various funding opportunities is amplify those things.”

Some of that amplification includes providing entrepreneurial, coaching, and business development services to local artists and creatives. That work is being funded by a three-year, $3.14 million Diverse Business Assistance grant that the Sherman Phoenix and Gener8tor Art received from the state in August 2022.

The nonprofit is also putting a big focus on its Phoenix Rising Institute, which provides business coaching to entrepreneurs across the city, focusing, as the Sherman Phoenix Marketplace does, on supporting current, and would-be business owners of color.

“We opened as a Black entrepreneurial hub and marketplace. So, it’s continuing to amplify that work to not just be for the businesses that are part of Sherman Phoenix, but also all of Milwaukee,” Thompson said. “The beauty of us being a foundation is everything doesn’t have to happen in the building.”

Thompson is also very excited about funding the nonprofit was recently awarded from Professional Dimensions to launch a business accelerator for women-owned businesses.

The nonprofit is also eager to continue partnering with other organizations to serve the greater Sherman Park and Milwaukee community with programming focused on supporting families, mental health, and financial literacy for kids and adults. Those programs include community baby showers, the popular Youth Trap Therapy, which helps young people process hard emotions through the art of Hip Hop, as well as newer programs, such as Self-Care Sundays for veterans.

Capital campaign

Growth for the Sherman Phoenix also includes putting the foundation firmly in charge of the marketplace operation itself, which includes its acquisition of the marketplace building. In December, thanks to financial support from donors, the foundation purchased the building for $300,000 from the developers and the 15 investors whose early financial contributions helped transform the blighted structure into a $4.5 million development.

Giving a tour of the marketplace on a recent afternoon, Thompson stopped by to chat with some of the 21 merchants who lease space at the Phoenix – some newer, like Baked Dreams, who had long been using a commercial kitchen in the building’s basement, but this year opened a café selling its signature baked goods, along with sandwiches and other café items, and some more established businesses, like J. Riley, a crochet artist selling handmade accessories and other items.

“We have 21 businesses here right now, but I believe we have space available in the original two suites that are now vacant, and we’re trying to do some buildouts,” Thomspon said. “We want to get to where we have space for 30 businesses.”

To help create more space for those future merchants, the Sherman Phoenix launched a $2 million capital campaign in November as part of its 5-year anniversary.

The “And Still Rising” campaign is also designed to provide funds for facility upgrades, including a much needed repaving of the parking lot.

Additionally, funds would be used to advance the organization’s strategic sustainability plan by creating an endowment.

“Instead of bleeding money out of the budget each year, we’d like to be able to do things like make upgrades to the HVAC system, and also take care of some more structural things around the building,” Thompson said, adding that there is also hope to create a first-floor classroom space that is more accessible than the existing one in the basement.”

The goal is to raise the full $2 million by the end of 2024.

As the nonprofit works to raise those funds it is still receiving grant assistance from American Family Insurance, which has extended its three-year, $300,000 annual pledge to the Sherman Phoenix for a fourth year. The nonprofit is also receiving funding from American Family as part of the company’s overall support of “urban future centers,” Thompson said.

A beacon

After garnering national attention for its successful marketplace and incubator model, one that has spawned several successful businesses, including Funky Fresh Spring Rolls, Lush Popcorn, and HoneyBee Sage Wellness & Apothecary Cafe, Thompson, Kaufmann, and Sabir say they regularly field calls from people both inside and outside of the Milwaukee region looking to develop similar incubators for Black entrepreneurs. Kaufmann has been advising a pair of black businesswomen in Evanston, Illinois as work to develop a Black entrepreneurial hub dubbed The Aux, while Sabir has been involved in strategy work on a project in Baltimore. Called The Communiversity, the effort is being led by former Harlem Globetrotter, and Baltimore native, Choo Smith. The Urban League in Madison has also reached out to the Sherman Phoenix looking for guidance on doing a similar project in that city.

“We get approached all the time from folks saying, ‘this would be great on the south side, or this would work well here,’” Thompson said. “Sometimes we get calls from people who just discovered our website, or people just show up. We had a college class from Tennessee come to visit because they were working on a project, and they came to see what this was. There was also a group of folks that gener8tor brought up from Alabama.”

While Thompson can’t predict where projects like the Sherman Phoenix will be successful, what she does know is that the foundation “has a model.”

“So, what we’ll look to do in the future is to take the model and make it so that it can be replicated in other communities,” she said.

Pent-up demand

And having the Sherman Phoenix to serve as that model is crucial, say Kaufmann and Sabir.

“What the Sherman Phoenix recognizes is that there’s this pent-up frustration,” Kaufmann said. “We saw that manifest violently and negatively with the burning of our city when somebody was shot. What you’re seeing at (the Sherman Phoenix) is the channeling of that pent-up frustration positively.”

But the interest from other communities is also a big indicator of pent-up demand from minority entrepreneurs looking for a way to grow their businesses.

That’s certainly true at The Aux, where the $10 million project is still a year a way from opening its doors but is almost entirely leased up.

“Just like at Sherman Phoenix, there is all this pent-up demand – all this opportunity not being tapped,” Kaufmann said. “So all the things we were waiting for – the barriers to be broken down – that’s happening. But all the hard stuff about money still exists. So that’s where our model is helping.”

For Sabir, who has her own development company but refers to herself mostly as a strategist, the goal is still about creating community-centered projects – what she calls “communities of care.”

“I don’t go in and build a building. I create an asset with all who live, work, and serve in that community. And that’s what I very much see the Sherman Phoenix as – I see it as serving the community,” she said. “So, we’re taking some of that Milwaukee magic and we’re spreading it across the nation.”

How to help

For those looking for how to support Sherman Phoenix, Thompson says donations to the capital campaign are always welcome, but she also encourages people from across the community to visit the marketplace and support the businesses there.

“You could be part of the ‘I Got 5 On it’ campaign by shopping or getting services at five of our vendors in 2024, or attending five of our events, or you could commit to sharing our information with five people, be it five entrepreneurs, or five people who’ve never heard of us or come here to eat or shop,” she said. “We’re always looking for the exposure, because we just need you to help us find people to catch the ‘Sherman Phoenix Effect.’ Once you come into the building, you just feel the energy and see all the amazing things that are going on, and you’re going to come back.”