Iowa City awards nonprofit Dream City nearly $3 million in Inclusive Economic Development funding

Underrepresented entrepreneurs and business owners in Iowa City are getting a boost – a $2.9 million one, to be exact – thanks to an Inclusive Economic Development grant awarded to Dream City, a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring positive community change through advocacy, art, community development, connections, wellness, and more recently, economic development. The grant is funding a joint initiative between Dream City, South of 6 Iowa City Business District, Mendoza Consulting, M.O.G.U.L Consulting and Community Development Strategies to create a platform and central hub where the underrepresented businesses and entrepreneurs can find support and community for their endeavors. “We're pushing for economic development and recruiting and retaining businesses on this side of town, not just for a capitalistic game, but to revitalize neighborhoods,” said Angie Jordan, executive director of South of 6 Iowa City Business District. Frederick Newell, founder and executive director of Dream City, said his vision for the community – which centered on encouraging the success of youth and families – expanded a few years ago through the relationships he formed while working with the South District Diversity Market pre-pandemic. “I wasn't thinking about economic development in the way that they were thinking about it," he said, of his collaborators. “I was thinking more so on the micro side of things, like how do I build young men to get to a place where they need to become successful? How do I help families feel like they belong in this community?” Previously known as The Dream Center, Mr. Newell founded the organization in 2012 as a response to the growing number of youth affected by absentee and non-involved fathers. Eventually, it grew to include Fatherhood Academy and other family-centric services, offering connection academies for kids that included performing and fine arts, health and wellness, youth leadership and community development. 

Inclusive Economic Development grants

The IED grants were born from both a city-led campaign polling residents on the usage of ARPA dollars and a 2022 study identifying barriers facing underestimated businesses in Johnson County that was conducted by Astig Planning, a community and environmental planning business in Iowa City. After the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was signed into law in 2021, establishing the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF), $18.3 million in ARPA funds were allocated to the city of Iowa City, which divided the money between two categories: Emergent needs and strategic investments, with BIPOC business support structure taking top priority for strategic investments.  Astig Planning’s Inclusive Economic Development Plan gave ARPA recommendations that local governmental bodies could pass to help underestimated businesses in Johnson County.  “It’s important for any local government to invest in underestimated business owners and businesses,” said founder and CEO of Astig Planning, V Fixmer-Oraiz, particularly at the local level, where people are getting their services – whether that’s looking for property to rent, building needs, or assistance for grants.

Iowa City council member Megan Alter said inclusive and diverse support networks are needed to bring fresh insights and approaches to communities, which in turn strengthens its economic base.  “You want more people invested,” she said. “It brings the potential of new revenue and new contacts.” Some barriers facing the target demographic of the study include access to legal and accounting services and affordable rent. “We certainly have some of the highest rent for commercial spaces,” said Mx. Fixmer-Oraiz. “When we looked at the data, it was astronomical what people were paying.” “We lock ourselves out of so much talent when we don't have the right size (and) more affordable spaces for entrepreneurs,” said Simeon Talley, founding partner of Community Development Strategies and project coordinator with Dream City.

A central hub 

As part of the plan, Astig Planning proposed a hub where people can access those services – managed by people who “look like them” so they can start their endeavor from a comfortable space, and Dream City was in a position to do just that.

“They were already collaborating,” said Ms. Alter, recalling the city’s decision to award the $2.9 million to Dream City. “There was something very appealing about that vision and saying, here's a physical space where people can gather. They don't have to go to places throughout the whole city, they can come to one place and they can get advice and support and help within one area.” “When a space is geographically located in the area where you do the work, it's very powerful,” said Ms. Jordan. “So those challenges – transportation is a barrier, we don't speak the language, we don't have rapport – a lot of those challenges sometimes fall away when (the) right people are doing the work in the right location together. “This regional hub will be a crown jewel, but let's not forget, there's already been community and economic development that's happened here. Now we're getting an investment from the city.”

Plans

Tasha Lard, founder and CEO at M.O.G.U.L Consulting and owner of JD Beauty Supply, Marlén Mendoza, founder and CEO of Mendoza Consulting, Mr. Talley and Ms. Jordan were already heavily involved in promoting local businesses and entrepreneurial spirit when Mr. Newell started collaborating with some of them at the Market. During that time, the idea to create a hub for traditionally underestimated entrepreneurs and business owners took root, and the partners applied for the grant – “a grueling process,” said Mr. Newell – in May 2023.

The grant funding has allowed Dream City to pay for its building at 611 Southgate Ave. in full and plan for major renovations, such as a welcome space, micro retail space and an auditorium available for community partners and local churches to rent, which will help fund the building. Food entrepreneurs will have access to a state of the art commercial kitchen and conference rooms, pop-up retail spaces, classrooms and offices are also in the works.  Additionally, Dream City will also provide programs geared toward strengthening the community and entrepreneurship by hosting cultural events, enriching the preexisting youth programs, and professional development workshops, such as Entrepreneurship Round Tables and Lunch and Learns, which will encourage networking and help connect area businesses with other seasoned entrepreneurs and business owners to create a consistent, dependable network within the community, something desperately needed for underestimated businesses. It can be disheartening to struggle alone, said Mr. Talley. “Lack of community, and that sense of feeling isolated, does create a dynamic where lots of folks sort of give up or walk away. And I think that this project can address that,” he said. 

Additional grants

Aside from Dream City, Iowa City has also given grants to:

• Wright House of Fashion for $100,000, to provide training in arts education and design related careers, offer related business programming and workshops, and host incubator space for early stage entrepreneurs;
• Multicultural Development Center of Iowa for $600,000, to hold business accelerator cohorts, provide business training and mentoring to small businesses and distribute technical assistance grants;
• Dotlizhi LLC for $100,000, to provide entrepreneurial cultural workshops, cultural outreach events and grants to small businesses;
• Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County for $80,000, to provide financial literacy workshops, entrepreneurial/business plan development workshops, neighborhood black and brown business networking events, coordinating and hosting business plan competitions and award ceremonies, youth entrepreneur boot-camps and coordinating youth attending an entrepreneurship conference, and
• Tailored Tax and Accounting LLC for $100,000, to provide financial education services including tax preparation, accounting, financial business planning, bookkeeping payroll services and credit repair.

Since the IED plan has been implemented, Mx. Fixmer-Oraiz hopes to see continued support, conversations and interactions that will reveal the vibrancy of Iowa City businesses, and Dream City hopes that more people and organizations will want to partner with their vision for the future.  “I just think that sometimes this particular side of the community is often talked about in a negative way. I think people don't really see us for us, sometimes,” said Mr. Newell. “But the beautiful thing about being a part of this, too, has literally just been seeing how we have plowed and plowed and plowed. Now the hope is that people will now value what we have done, and then they will make an investment into things.” Dream City will have a Community-Wide Entrepreneur Roundtable on May 9 at 6 p.m.