Timothy L. Tramble, Sr. That Guy
by Montrie Rucker Adams, APR
It was on June 1, 2020, that Timothy L. Tramble Sr., took the lead of Saint Luke’s Foundation (SLF), the organization founded to “ensure that the charitable mission of the medical center continued” after the Saint Luke’s Medical Center closed in 1997. While Tramble may be new to SLF, he is no novice to the work he is called to do. For 20 years he served as the Executive Director of the Burten, Bell, Carr Community Development Corporation (BBC). While there, he led the team that took a small, obscure community organization to one that boasts a list of unparalleled accomplishments.
To paint a picture of the legacy Tramble left after leading BBC for two decades, he explains that they built over 500 single family homes and were associated with over 2500 rental housing developments. The home ownership zone was a concept that had not been realized. The naysayers were asking, “How do you think you will interest people in buying homes next to cemeteries and public housing?”
They bought the first homes and continued to buy. The team came up with a brilliant strategy to build in volume. “We had a HUD 108 low interest loan with less than one percent interest,” explains Tramble. “We invested the loan money in constructing homes Though it had operated for 10 years, when Tramble in volume. With a 40-unit spec build max, as soon arrived in 2000, BBC had one employee, a $120,000 as we sold one, we added another to the spec build budget and $9,000 in the bank. By the time Tramble list. Homeowners were excited that they were a part left in 2020, there were over 20 employees, $2.2M in of something new and that they would not have the land under development, over $1M in the bank and an only new house on the street.” annual budget of over $3 million. In addition to the housing and community Not one to pat himself on the back, Tramble says he programming, another signature project is is “most proud of the progress and the people who Bridgeport Place, built in 2008, and houses BBC’s approach me to tell a story about the work we did headquarters, Cleveland Public Library’s Garden that had a positive impact on their lives. The point of Valley Branch and WOVU, BBC’s community radio station heard on 95.5 FM. Our Voices United, the it all is to help people thrive,” he says. WINTER/SPRING 2022 | 21
