Business district along city’s King Drive is expanding
Residents worried about effects of gentrification
Daren Jackson started to see things change on the south end of North King Drive, closer to downtown. New storefronts, streets free of graffiti and trash and light posts adorned with flower pots all gave the street new signs of life.
But the north end of King Drive was a different story, according to Jackson, owner of King’s Hall, a banquet venue that he opened on the drive in 2008.
“I always noticed that as soon as you get up across North Avenue, everything looked better,” Jackson said. “They just have more caring people, I thought. But I found out it was the BID.”
That’s Business Improvement District No. 8 — commonly called the Historic King Drive BID — a quasi-governmental agency that fosters business development and helps entrepreneurs. It is one of 51 BIDs throughout the city.
The Historic King Drive BID was expanded in September by a Common Council resolution. Though many supported the expansion, some residents were worried that gentrification could push out longtime businesses and residents.
Deshea Agee, the BID’s executive director, said the goal was to bring more local business ownership to the north end of the street.
Agee has the support of people like James Phelps, the owner of JCP Construction and the chairman of the Historic King Drive BID’s board of directors. Both say they are looking first to give homegrown entrepreneurs an upgrade by offering them first dibs on storefronts, so the north end of the street looks more like the south end.
“It doesn’t do our city or King Drive any good to have a tale of two King Drives,” Phelps said.
‘They keep things in order’
BIDs work within designated geographic areas of the city. They are financed through annual assessments on non-residential properties within their neighborhoods.
King Drive runs from West McKinley Avenue to West Capitol Drive, but the BID’s domain exists from West McKinley — often what’s referred to as the south end of King Drive — to West Locust Street, often called the north end.
The flower pots, lighting and clean streets on that southern end of King Drive were inspired by what Agee saw along other King Drives around the country. Behind the facade is substance: networking opportunities, recruitment of local entrepreneurs, lowinterest loans for repairs and other support.
The BID has also been home to several high-profile renovations and projects, such as investments in Victory Over Violence Park, construction of a resourcedriven collective called the ThriveOn Collaboration in the old Schuster’s building and news that the health-focused Dohmen Co. Foundation Inc. will move its headquarters there. The former Milwaukee county executive, Chris Abele, is also expected to invest in a location along King Drive with “The Chris Abele Legacy Co-Working and Innovation Space.”
King Drive runs through the Harambee, Halyard Park, Brewers Hill and Haymarket neighborhoods, and each have unique challenges.
The north end of King Drive had gotten so run down, Jackson said, it was affecting his business. “With the kind of business I do, how it looks matters,” he said. “I’ve had customers call and say, ‘I don’t like it over there, it looks bad over there.’”
When Jackson heard that the changes he saw on the south end of the street might come to his end of King Drive if the BID were expanded, he was all in.
“They keep things in order, and that’s their job; they keep things in order 24/7,” Jackson said. “So, when Deshea said it had a chance to expand down here, I was like, yeah, who wouldn’t want that?”
Many business owners north of North Avenue agreed and in June, they gathered signatures for a petition requesting an expansion of the BID and sent it to the Common Council.
Some worry about gentrification
But the road to a BID expansion along the drive was not entirely smooth.
Some residents expressed concerns about gentrification and displacement, which can happen when increases in property taxes or rent force longtime residents to move.
In September, 5 Points Neighborhood Association President Samuel Sims wrote a letter expressing concerns about the speed of the expansion, fears of gentrification, the disruption of existing projects within the BID’s new boundaries and the notification process. Sims did not respond to the Journal Sentinel’s attempts to reach him.
Sy Smith, another member of the neighborhood association, expressed similar concerns, and the owner of the 5 Points Art Gallery & Studio, Fatima Laster, attempted — unsuccessfully — to stop the BID. Laster was able to exclude her own business from the BID expansion.
Frieda Webb is a longtime homeowner who lives near North 5th and West Walnut streets. She called the BID expansion a mixed blessing. “We’ve had meetings about displacement because, you know, development is good but not at the expense of homeowners and African American people,” Webb said. “We can’t stand still, so how do we move forward?”
Although Jackson lives in the same building that houses his business at 3413 N. King Drive, he is not worried about being displaced due to gentrification because, he said, that didn’t happen on the south end of King Drive.
Instead, Jackson, who is used to dealing with broken glass, trash and other nuisances around his property, said he’s excited about the promise of neighborhood improvements.
“With the BID here now, I can only imagine what they are going to do. And I don’t mind paying the extra tax because it’s worth it,” he said.
Agee wants to ensure that improvement doesn’t lead to the kind of gentrification and displacement seen in nearby Brewers Hill and Halyard Park. Growing up near North 14th and West Burleigh streets, Agee said he realized “what some people thought was going to happen with improvements meant gentrification” to residents near King Drive.
That’s why he and 6th District Ald, Milele Coggs have been intentional about how and who they recruit. They may target local entrepreneurs who are working out of their homes, for example, and ask them to invest in storefronts along King Drive, he said.
“If we’re able to be successful in producing economic development, and hiring from the neighborhood, and streetscaping, creative place-making and engaging with artists, we become a part of that legacy-changing story,” he said.
What comes next?
Since 2019, the district has become home to 10 local businesses, including the Center Street Wellness Center and the Bronzeville Collective.
In 2020, during the pandemic, the BID partnered with the Local Initiatives Support Corp. and Chase Bank to make $3 million in grants available to businesses. Although it was a tricky time to expand, Agee said having an existing and engaged BID meant the process for local businesses to receive financial support was smoother.
Phelps of the Historic King Drive BID said the organization encourages entrepreneurship and helps stabilize the area.
“We want people to have strong businesses where they can shop locally as opposed to going downtown or Mayfair,” he said.
But it takes time.
“This is a marathon, not a sprint.”