for The Wall Street Journal: Park Slope's many Black-, Hispanic- and immigrant-owned businesses have tapped friends and family around the world. by José A. Alvarado Jr.

Media News

for The Wall Street Journal: Park Slope's many Black-, Hispanic- and immigrant-owned businesses have tapped friends and family around the world.

josé a. alvarado jr.

Aug 7, 2020

Location: park slope

Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue was a ghost town all spring, erupted with Black Lives Matter protests at the start of summer and has now been transformed into a lively outdoor dining room as restaurants and bars spill out into the street.â â €
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The evolution is a relief to residents and businesses. But it has forced many owners to scramble for cash to build outdoor patios, buy inventory and rehire workers. For the Park Slope neighborhood’s many Black-, Hispanic- and immigrant-owned businesses, that meant tapping informal networks of friends and family around the world to bring in cash that other businesses might have borrowed from banks.â â €
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Small businesses usually struggle with cash, and for those owned by minorities and immigrants, the risks are higher because they are often cut off from traditional lending sources.â â €
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Gary Casimir and his partners in BK9, a Caribbean restaurant that had a thriving business before the coronavirus, have his mother to thank for their survival. The nine friends who started the restaurant all were first- and second-generation Caribbean immigrants who had worked together in restaurants when they attended college nearby three decades ago.â â €
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They couldn’t get bank loans when they opened BK9 five years ago even though they were all in professional jobs and had restaurant experience. “There was no financing—it was mostly my savings,” said Mr. Casimir, a product liability lawyer in Manhattan. “It was slow in the beginning but we built up a niche, community-oriented spot.”â â €
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Those business owners with connections to banks have done better. For Kingsley Sosoo, an immigrant from Nigeria who opened a Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea franchise in 2019, the connection was Andre Djibatche, a Wells Fargo banker originally from Cameroon. “The first day we met we clicked like we had known each other for 10 or 15 years,” Mr. Sosoo said.â â €
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When Mr. Sosoo was raising money to start Sweetwaters, Wells Fargo helped him get a Small Business Administration loan. Photographs and video for The Wall Street Journal. Words by Peter Grant and Justin Lahart.

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José A. Alvarado Jr.

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