ON CAMPUS
RAMP UP TO SUCCESS
Business owners grapple with growth in gentrifying Central District By Dean Forbes
Earl’s Cuts and Styles—the iconic Central District barbershop owned and operated successfully for nearly three decades by Earl Lancaster—is claiming a slice of Seattle’s rapid growth and development. Lancaster is among several local business owners working with Seattle University’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center to retrofit their current business models in ways that provide passage into modern retail spaces in this historically African-American neighborhood. After raising $220,000 in loans and grants to build out and lease a street-level space in the Liberty Bank Building, Lancaster signed his new lease on earlier this year and celebrated this milestone with his team of community partners. “It’s a beautiful day, everybody,” said Lancaster, after signing the lease documents at Capitol Hill Housing’s offices. “It really is an honor to have you move into our building, to keep you at that corner,” said Christopher Persons, CEO of Capitol Hill Housing, which developed the building that houses Earl’s Cuts and Styles. “It’s been a privilege being part of this development, Earl. We’re very, very pleased.” In 2016, Seattle University’s Albers School of Business and Economics received a $500,000 grant from JPMorgan Chase to develop the Resource Amplification & Management Program (RAMP), which is led by Sue Oliver, director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. RAMP matches highly trained SU teams of faculty, staff and students with Central District businesses. “JPMorgan Chase is committed to helping communities make long-term investments in programs that provide viable pathways for low-income entrepreneurs to flourish in our city and to achieve self-sufficiency and success,” said Phyllis Campbell, JPMorgan Chase Chairperson of the Pacific Northwest. “We feel our support of Seattle University’s Albers School of Business and Economics is an important way we are helping to build long-term success of the local economy.”
3 6 S E AT T L E U N I V E R S I T Y M AG A Z I N E | FA L L 2 01 9
RAMP provides business coaching, consulting and deliverables such as marketing, business and financial plans, and access to SU interns, subject matter experts and referrals to community resources. Since 2016, RAMP has served more than 150 businesses with more than 2,000 hours of training, coaching and technical assistance from teams of students, mentors, volunteers and community partners. “RAMP’s goal is for these businesses to build their capacity to thrive in the midst of Seattle’s booming economy and concurrent gentrification,” said Randy Massengale, who leads RAMP’s community outreach efforts and who worked closely with Lancaster and Seattle U students assigned to his project. “The ability for Earl and other local business owners to remain in the Central District is essential to Seattle’s economic, social and ethnic fabric. The key to affordable housing and commercial retail space is allowing business owners and their families to stay and work in the community where they started.” Lancaster began working with the RAMP team in 2018 when a developer bought Midtown Center, where Earl’s was located, to build a seven-story apartment building. This summer Earl’s Cuts and Styles opened at its new location, the Liberty Bank Building, on 24th and Union. “RAMP is a great venture because it can help a lot of small businesses in the neighborhood transition to the new situation in Seattle, the new demographics of Seattle,” said Lancaster. “RAMP gave me all of the help I needed. Of course I had to do a lot of the work myself. They were there for me on the legal work, writing proposals, doing their due diligence, talking with people...SU and the RAMP team made it possible for me to get further along.” The RAMP program brought together a customized team that included an experienced business mentor, a client account manager (MBA student) and student volunteers. Together they worked with Lancaster to convert his practical business experience into assets such as a business plan, bank-ready financial projections and credit history, while collaborating closely with a variety of community partners. “I had the opportunity to watch the RAMP team work very effectively with Earl Lancaster over many months to understand his 30-year-old business and role in the community and to prepare a business plan for his new venture at the Liberty Bank Building,” said Walter Zisette, senior development manager at Capitol Hill Housing. “RAMP didn’t just do a lot of business development work for Earl, they brought him along in the process so that he understood and participated in each step.”
PHOTO BY YOSEF CHAIM KALINKO
