West End rising: Seminars encourage Black investment

KEN KOONTZ | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Charlotte developer Chris Dennis leads weekly empowerment sessions for real estate-related professionals interested in projects in historically underserved neighborhoods.

Chris Dennis is empowering people who want to rebuild their community.

Dennis, a real estate developer, recently launched a weekly gathering of entrepreneurs in sales, investment, development and related services called “Real Estate and Roast.” The sessions have grown to standing-room-only attendance of about 40 participants of varied interests from land developers and various service providers to construction companies and financial/loan services.

The free seminars focus on Black business owners who share a common goal meet Friday mornings at Archive CLT coffee shop and bookstore to illuminate areas that Black real estate interests are denied access to and, in the process, restricts opportunities.

“I want to educate and empower other Blacks in the inter-cultural circles of real estate financing, banking and wealth building,” he said. “The ultimate is our doing our own neighborhood improvement.”

Dennis’ experience as a real estate investor, developer and owner of commercial and residential properties counter stereotypical images of Black neighborhoods, especially in northwest Charlotte. He describes them as the last opportunity for Black investment opportunities that can change perceptions that systematically devalue predominantly Black communities and leave them vulnerable for outside, non-Black investment to cherry pick opportunities that generate higher values for their financial benefit.

“The biggest thing done is promotion of negative stereotypes of the Beatties Ford Corridor primarily as crime-infested, low-value land and seemingly holding back on certain financial regulations, procedures,” said Dennis, who lives in the Lockwood community bound by North Tryon and Graham streets. “I drastically want to change that.”

Dennis is fueled by his Sumter, South Carolina, roots. As a boy, he stuttered, couldn’t read and wasn’t a very good student. But, as he puts it, “What others saw and predicted was not what Gad planned and directed.

“In short, I was a young black statistic used to identify black boys headed to prison. But then the light went off and I was on a whole new trajectory with new goals. Now, I am living my dreams, overcoming obstacles and dealing with a myriad of challenges and stubborn roadblocks set against me.”

Dennis went on to a 22-year Air Force career that included a stint in Special Forces as well as a corporate banker in market data/trading operations and community activism. In 2012, he disconnected from the corporate world and became total independent.

Dennis talks openly about being “intentional” in empowering others. He set out on that journey from a personal experience during his tenure in a corporate banking environment and being the only person of color in a high-level session about investment finance. The discussion focused on a west Charlotte neighborhood that had been nationally ranked as one of the top 25 worst crime-invested communities in the country.

At that moment, Dennis said he pledged to dedicate his investment and development interests to change that narrative.  

He bought properties in Lockwood, including a former drug house that was converted into affordable and profitable long-term revenue streams that allowed him to “change the narrative.” That success carried him to other ventures in predominantly Black, northwest corridor neighborhoods, including collaborations with Chase Bank and TD Bank at corner of Beatties Ford Road and LaSalle Street.

“But this ain’t about me,” he said. “This is about our communities that others are taking advantage of.”

Dennis says there are other Black professionals in real estate sales, investment, development who miss opportunities because of what they don’t know or even ask questions about the process that can sustain or grow their organizations.

“I am about using what I have and know to improve ourselves and reverse the false narratives about marginalized communities that call us broken,” he said.

Comments