Albany Black Chamber of Commerce opens doors
ALBANY — The Albany Black Chamber of Commerce and Social Club kicked off the start of Black History Month Wednesday by unveiling its new home at the former University Club building in the heart of downtown Albany.
The newly created group’s mission is to empower Black entrepreneurship and drive economic growth in the city. Business for Good, a Capital Region nonprofit focused on investing in minority-owned businesses, donated the landmark building at 141 Washington Ave. to serve as the epicenter for the chamber after purchasing it last year for $950,000.
“When we started Business for Good about two years ago, our primary reason for being was to use our business and entrepreneurial skills and network to help Black and brown people realize their dreams of growing businesses and entrepreneurship — and this building really symbolizes probably the biggest thing that we’ve
done since we’ve been around,” said Business for Good cofounder Ed Mitzen, who called the three-story, 20,000-square foot building the “nicest Black chamber building in the country.”
Located at the corner of Washington Avenue and Dove Street, across the street from the Albany Institute of History and Art, the red brick Colonial Revival building’s exterior embodies
its rich and expansive history. Its interior, however, has undergone a makeover that’s transformed the former private social club into a blueprint for community building and collaboration.
Among its aesthetically curated amenities is a large common room illuminated by natural light and filled with a variety of seating options to encourage
▶
socialization among guests. A private conference room and collection of workstations are also available on the main floor, as well as event space for community gatherings.
While not yet available to the public, the upstairs areas of the building are slated to be rentable office space. And in the basement, a bowling alley will be accessible for recreational use, the Business for Good website touts.
Nicole Newman, assistant principal at North Albany Middle School, attended the ribboncutting ceremony held at the building Wednesday morning and said the new hub for business owners of color represents the journey she hopes to inspire her students to embark on.
“It’s not enough to just educate them; we want them to come and see what can happen when we invite them to be entrepreneurs, that they can come here and be supported by people at the chamber who can help make their visions come to fruition and that the leaders here are people who look like them,” Newman said.
When her kids were younger, Newman said she thought about moving away from the city to an area with more resources for Black students to surround themselves with diverse leaders in business, education and other
fields of study. The Black Chamber of Commerce is now filling that void, Newman said, and she’s looking forward to planning a school field trip soon so her students can see the opportunities available to them.
For Deshanna Wiggins, who was named CEO of the newly created chamber in October, the new headquarters signifies a necessary step in changing the landscape of the Capital Region community and expanding the footprint of Black- and minority-owned businesses.
“This is certainly a full circle moment for myself,” said Wiggins, who grew up in Albany before moving to Atlanta to attend college and launch her professional career. “It was always my intention and always my dream to come back here to do the work that is necessary to build the Black and brown community business and to let everyone know that Albany is indeed the capital of New York, and we will stand with this
being a prime example of what this region has to offer.”
Under her leadership, the Albany Black Chamber of Commerce and Social Club aims to nurture the development of businesses by those from marginalized backgrounds by offering mentoring and educational programs to community members.
After 121 years as a private social club, the University Club’s decision to sell the downtown building came following decades of declining membership, the Times Union previously reported.
Mayor Kathy Sheehan called the grand opening of the space a historic moment for the city. As a former member of the University Club, she shared memories of it being a place of gathering that, in recent years, started to change. “That evolution became a revolution when this transition occurred,” she said regarding the new purpose of the building that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“I think about the conversations that are going to happen in here when an entrepreneur who is in the tech space is going to be talking to an entrepreneur who is thinking about wind energy, and they are going to create something amazing and incredible,” Sheehan said. “Our future is happening here, and it brings a sense of pride, it brings hope and it brings optimism.”