With help from ABHMS, a mustard seed grows: Reimagining Black ownership in Chicago
VALLEY FORGE, PA (07/01/2025)—A visitor to the corner of 79th and Cottage Grove in Chicago will see a derelict, half-vacant strip mall. Framed by cracked pavement and shuttered storefronts, the building is a silent testament to decades of disinvestment. This once-lively commercial hub now feels abandoned. There are no grocery stores or pharmacies nearby, just a payday lender and a liquor store. For longtime residents of the neighborhood, this landscape is not just inconvenient. It is demoralizing. Without access to grocery stores selling healthy food or necessary services, areas like this one are caught in a cycle of neglect. This reinforces inequality and stifles opportunity, as run-down shopping centers attract crime and drag down neighborhoods.
But thanks to targeted catalytic investments from the American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS), communities like this are finding new life. In 2020 and 2021, ABHMS supported the work of The Chicago TREND Corporation (TREND), a social enterprise dedicated to revitalizing urban commercial corridors co-founded by CEO Lyneir Richardson in 2016.
The foundational idea that has paved the way for transformation was based on the acquisition of shopping centers just like the one on 79th and Cottage Grove and inviting community investors. Thanks to TREND, community members, often from historically marginalized groups that had limited pathways to accumulating wealth, may become co-owners of neighborhood landmarks by investing as little as $1000.
TREND meets people where they are. They organize informational sessions in churches, libraries, and community centers. Their model is based on the education-first approach, meaning that potential investors are equipped with the skills to read contracts, tax documents, and lease terms. Importantly, in order to foster financial learning and normalize intergenerational wealth building, TREND welcomes children and young people to accompany their parents and grandparents to the sessions.
Since 2016, Chicago TREND has acquired six shopping centers, including a 27,000 sq. ft. strip mall at 100 West 111th Street in Roseland. The number of community investors has grown to 384, with 67 percent of them being Black, 46 percent women, and 53 percent from low or moderate-income neighborhoods.
This growing diversity in ownership is transforming how people can relate to the spaces around them. “Now people have a real connection. You start to think differently about the properties you pass by, for example, where you get your carry-out,’ said Richardson in an interview with Clifton Strain, ABHMS’ chief financial officer and treasurer-elect. “Most of the time, you don’t know who owns those places. But now you can say, ‘Let’s grab coffee at the shopping center my family owns,’ or ‘Let’s pick up dinner from the place my fraternity brother, my fellow church member, or even my prom date’s uncle owns.’ There’s a personal connection to ownership. It makes a difference.”
Among Chicago TREND’s standout successes is the acquisition of Butterfield Plaza, home to Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream. It is a beloved Black-owned business “praised by Michelle Obama as serving the best ice cream she had all year,” said Richardson. Another key project supported a Black couple in opening a UPS Store franchise; TREND provided them with six months of free rent and a $200,000 loan. These efforts exemplify TREND’s model of combining mission and market: the shopping centers were not only revitalized but also became platforms for local Black entrepreneurship.
At the heart of ABHMS is a commitment to healing and transforming communities, especially those burdened by injustice and economic exclusion. The foundational investments that ABHMS provided functioned like equity, empowering TREND to buy its first two shopping centers and launch a model that combines community ownership, racial equity, and local entrepreneurship. Richardson described stewarding the money “like it was borrowed from our grandmother.” The funds sparked not just economic returns, but renewed pride and possibility in communities too often overlooked.
With your support, ABHMS can continue to provide the catalytic capital that will empower communities to heal and thrive. By giving through our online portal, you can help make more stories like this possible.
By Rev. Dr. Anna Piela, ABHMS senior writer and associate editor of The Christian Citizen
