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With business close to bursting at the seams, upscale custom clothier J. Benzal is set to move its downtown store to a larger, bespoke space along Washington Street—thanks in part to a local program focused on helping Black-owned companies acquire real estate.
The Indianapolis office of the New York City-based Local Initiatives Support Corp. launched its Real Estate Assistance Fund in 2022 in partnership with Columbus-based manufacturer Cummins Inc.
The program, which received about $440,000 from the Cummins Advocating for Racial Equity initiative, is intended to help central Indiana Black business owners combat long-standing challenges in securing bank loans. The program offers low interest rates as well as grants of up to $40,000 (as much as 10% of the property value) that can be used to pay for real estate purchases or improvements.
To date, the fund has helped seven area companies secure loans, with two more loans set to close in the coming months.
J. Benzal received approval on its loan in 2023, allowing it to plan a move later this year to 38 E. Washington St.—about 100 feet east of its current location, where it has a lease. It has purchased the building for its new location.
J. Benzal opened in 2008 on Massachusetts Avenue before moving to the Washington Street spot in 2018. A store in the Fashion Mall at Keystone also opened that year. A Carmel location had opened in 2013; it closed during the pandemic.
Mamadou “Ben” Diallo, who owns J. Benzal with his wife, Kameelah, said LISC has been “doing a good job in reaching out to small businesses and minority companies to help [address] their financial needs.”
The two spoke with IBJ in their current store, which occupies about 900 square feet at 22 E. Washington St. and has numerous racks of suits, shirts, coats and pants; several tables adorned with ties and belts; and built-in shelves full of dress shirts. It’s a space that has become cramped over the years as the pair has sought to introduce new styles and attract additional customers.
The move down the block will increase the store’s square footage and create a new stream of revenue—a new third floor will have two apartments that will be used for short-term rentals. The Diallos are spending about $500,000 to build the third floor addition, as well as furnish the storefront on the first floor and an upstairs office.
“Each move that we’ve made, we’ve grown—both with our customer base and the merchandise that we want to be able to offer,” Kameelah Shaheed-Diallo said. “We’ve been here six years, and as you can see, we’re already kind of expanding and bursting at the seams. So, the opportunity to go into that space also gives us much more square footage for our services.”
The new building, she said, will have about 1,900 square feet of showroom space, which will be designed with an upscale, minimalist approach. In addition, the couple plans to renovate the building’s façade with aluminum and glass.
LISC offers a façade and property-improvement initiative alongside the real estate assistance fund; J. Benzal is using both. The façade program offers reimbursement for qualified businesses or property owners of 50% to 90% of the cost of a project ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 for completed work. It prioritizes minority-owned businesses as well as commercial properties within designated areas of Indianapolis.
The Diallos acquired their building through a holding company, Diallo Investment Group LLC, for $950,000 in late 2023, with the LISC real estate grant covering a portion of the down payment and closing costs, along with fees for inspections and a survey of the property, Ben Diallo said.
‘Come alongside’
David Hampton, executive director of LISC Indianapolis, said the organization hopes more businesses will apply for funds through the program, which will conclude once the money is depleted—likely sometime this year or in 2025.
“We really seek to come alongside some of these businesses” to help them grow, Hampton said. “When you think about it, an injection to a business really helps to expand the entire ecosystem, and it helps the economy of Indianapolis at large, not just that business.”
Jennifer Norton is owner of Norton Estate Planning and Elder Law Firm LLC at 3750 N. Meridian St. She said she began working with LISC because the program presented an opportunity to work with a local lender and to secure a loan for a property. The building she acquired will not house her offices but is a multi-use investment opportunity that offers office, retail and residential options.
“There’s value in the grant because it’s an opportunity to be in the commercial space,” she said.
Norton said working with LISC is especially beneficial to first-time property buyers and entrepreneurs who are newer to owning their businesses and don’t yet have a strong history of success.
“If it’s your first go, and you think that this is an important purchase, I would focus on going through LISC or an organization like that, because they will help you learn the ropes, even though you may be a little bit more restricted in how things are done and with oversight,” Norton said. “It can teach you discipline, so that your future purchases will be even more successful. It will also set you up for success so that those bigger lenders would be foolish to tell you no.”
LISC’s grant and loan network is a partnership with three other community development financial institutions: Anderson-based Bankable, Buildfund and the Indy Chamber-backed Business Ownership Initiative. It stems from efforts to address a well-documented history of discrimination in the real estate industry against buyers of color.
Hampton said those practices resulted in “not just lost revenue for a Black or brown business; it’s also lost revenue for the city.”
“We want to support any business, but historically and statistically, when you look at the businesses that are struggling or left out, many of those are minority, Black and brown,” he said. “If they were to be a partner and a participant in the economy, you’d see the entire economy actually increase, which helps everybody.”
‘The visibility is great’
Federal laws and regulations have for years—starting with the Fair Housing Act of 1968—sought to reduce discrimination in the residential real estate industry. But several Black business owners told IBJ they have continued to face challenges in securing commercial loans, funding and business opportunities with traditional banks. That’s why they turned to the LISC program.
“Even if you have good credit, the amount of capital you can get from a bank as a minority business owner is usually limited,” Ben Diallo said.
Michael Harris, a dentist who worked with LISC to complete the purchase of a building in Lawrence for his practice, Midwest Integrative Dental Medicine, said while he believes he would have been able to secure a loan through other means, he decided to work with LISC because he got a better interest rate.
And he said he sees other Black business owners struggle when working with traditional banks. Harris said the LISC program could be particularly helpful for those individuals, because it could help more young people of color get their foot in the door of the business world.
“As younger people of color move into the space of business ownership, and hopefully commercial real estate ownership … I feel it will have a big impact on the clients and communities we serve,” he said.
“We’re sometimes dealing with a community who—they may not see that many Black doctors, they may not see many young Black professionals in business,” he said. “So just the visibility is great, and hopefully that will inspire other kids and young people to engage in a business that might entail some risk. All told, it can be pretty rewarding in a lot of ways.”
In addition to J. Benzal, Norton Estate Planning and Midwest Integrative Dental, LISC has secured loans and grants for four other firms:
◗ Ellis Mortuary
◗ Joy’s Helping Hand
◗ Nettie’s Learning Academy
◗ Tiny Urban Escapes
Labor-intensive process
Norton said applicants should “be prepared to go the extra mile” when they work with LISC, because it’s a program that’s giving an opportunity to business owners that they might not receive otherwise.
“You just have extra steps, and some of them are unexpected,” she said. “But I think more people need to know about LISC and these opportunities, because people are [using] their own capital when there are organizations out here with the funding to assist them.”
The Diallos said the LISC program application and approval process was far more labor-intensive and involved more granular conversations than what they’d come to expect with a traditional bank loan. They anticipated a time line of about three months, but the paperwork and other steps took about a year. LISC is also keeping a close eye on the Diallos’ budget for renovations to the new building.
Kameelah Shaheed-Diallo said she and Ben would choose to work with LISC again if they had to do it all over but added that she would advise businesses who apply for the program to be prepared for a drawn-out time line.
“I would say it’s worthwhile,” she said. “I’ve shared this feedback with LISC—that it would have been helpful for us if we knew at the front end that it was going to be so labor-intensive. We probably would have hired someone to just be able to be responsive to them had we known they were going to require so much oversight.”•
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