Zora’s House will build on the site of the D&J Carryout in Weinland Park
Zora’s House is getting an upgrade.
The Weinland Park-based nonprofit is the new owner of the site of the recently demolished D&J Carryout at North 4th Street and East 8th Avenue in the neighborhood.
After years of exploring options for the property, Community Properties of Ohio donated the land to Zora’s House, a coworking and community space for women of color currently housed in an approximately 2,000-square-foot building on Summit Street. The organization will launch a $2.5 million capital campaign to construct a 10,000-square-foot building, with a tentative goal to open doors in late 2022.
Founder and CEO LC Johnson said the additional space will allow her to extend programming to more women, who often leverage Zora’s House to launch businesses and other initiatives.
“I’m trying to create this community that truly centers and elevates the voices, leadership, healing and creativity of women of color,” said Johnson, 33. “I look at that plot of land and it makes me smile because I know what’s going to be there one day—this idea that Black, indigenous, AAPI and Latina women would have something that’s built for us. We drive around Columbus all the time seeing all these new developments, and we find ourselves in the back room of the old library. We find ourselves in all of these emotionally significant spaces, but not a part of this conversation of what’s being invested in.”
The building will include coworking space on the first floor, bedrooms for a residency program on the second floor and subsidized office space on the third floor. Johnson is also looking for partners to open a coffee shop on the first floor and a daycare in the basement.
Looking for community benefit
The neighborhood has been awaiting the fate of the former D&J Carryout since the business was purchased for $1.1 million by the Ohio State University’s nonprofit development arm, Campus Partners, in 2014. The store was regarded as a hotspot for criminal activity, and specifically was associated with the infamous Short North Posse.
Campus Partners said the acquisition was part of efforts to improve public safety. The organization transferred ownership to Community Properties of Ohio, an affiliate of Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing, to help find a use for the site that would benefit the community.
Working in collaboration with Campus Partners and the Columbus Foundation, Community Properties made its first-ever donation of land to Zora’s House, which celebrated its third anniversary April 27.
“(It) was an important decision for us because of our established presence in the Weinland Park neighborhood and our commitment to seeing the neighborhood continue to thrive,” said Chad Ketler, CEO of Community Properties of Ohio. “LC’s community building and vision and leadership are highly aligned with our organizational values. I’m excited to see Zora’s House come to light and really have a positive impact.”
The purchase agreement was made for $1.07, signifying the Jan. 7 birthday of author Zora Neale Hurston, for whom Zora’s House is named.
It was a significant contribution, given that less than half of 1 percent of philanthropic funding is directed to programs by and for women and girls of color, according to a report by the Ms. Foundation.
“Unfortunately, it’s taken a lot of tragedy for a lot of people to pay this much attention to racial equity, but now that they are, it’s time to make these kinds of investments,” said Matt Martin, a community research and grants management officer with the Columbus Foundation, which is investing $100,000, the maximum amount from its capital improvements fund, in Johnson’s capital campaign. “LC can’t be the only woman of color in this city that we support like this, but I think it’s a place to start. She’s supporting women of color across the spectrum of income and ethnicity. The members of Zora’s House are getting more opportunities to influence more things, people and systems in our community, and we need them all to be at their best.”
Incubator, support system
Johnson first engaged with Campus Partners in 2016, when she and her husband bought one of the vacant lots the organization had acquired. The couple built Zora’s House and their own home behind it on the land.
“(LC) was able to innovate on the property in a way I don’t know if I’ve ever seen before,” said Erin Prosser, director of community development at Campus Partners. “It’s a tremendous asset in the community and to see the success that she’s had and for her to be ready to expand is a testament to not just LC, but the entire community she’s built.”
Since its inception, Zora’s House has reached more than 2,000 women through programming and events. The organization’s Women of Color Owned (WOCO) Markets have generated over $75,000 in revenue for local women of color.
Zora’s House also has received more than $300,000 through fundraising campaigns, corporate funding and foundation support, as well as $50,000 from the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio’s Enduring Progress initiative to invest in women and girls of color.
Jami Jackson, a Zora’s House leadership fellow, said the organization has provided a support system for her personal healing and helped other women personally and professionally.
“Zora’s House is a great incubator because any woman who wants to improve themselves has the opportunity,” said Jackson, 26, of Weinland Park. “I just love it so much. This organization is so needed and necessary. I really believe that it will impact not only the women in the present day, but generations after us will benefit from what Zora’s House is, and that makes me excited.”
Changing neighborhood
The organization’s acquisition of the D&J site happened amid disagreements over the closing of multiple carryouts in Weinland Park. Campus Partners also acquired Kelly’s Carryout at 1521 N. 4th St. and sold it to a private developer. Natalia’s Carry Out, once located at 1293 Summit St., was closed and demolished following a complaint from the city attorney’s office, which cited criminal activity.
“There are so many complexities and layers and very real critiques about the ways that our city develops and who has access,” Johnson said. “I think it’s important to recognize people’s concerns.”
Like many American neighborhoods, Weinland Park has historically been divided across racial and economic lines due to segregation and redlining. Poor management of government-subsidized housing and other disinvestment as well as drug and gang activity contributed to a period of decline.
But during the past decade and a half, Weinland Park experienced renewed interest, most notably from the Weinland Park Collaborative, which includes Community Properties of Ohio, the Columbus Foundation, Ohio State — and thus Campus Partners — and a host of other organizations and businesses. With an aim to revitalize the neighborhood by investing in housing, employment, education, public safety and civic engagement.
Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing acquired and renovated hundreds of project-based Section 8 units in the neighborhood. Renovations also were made to single-family homes. Today, that affordable housing exists together with new, market-rate townhomes, single-family homes and apartments — mostly concentrated in the Grant Park development on North Grant Avenue. Real estate developers Thrive Cos., the former Wagenbrenner Development, and Lykens Cos. have done major projects in the neighborhood.
But the mixed-income, stabilized environment did not come without costs. People have left the neighborhood due to rising housing prices. And some residents are concerned with the number of businesses and organizations that have relocated or closed, and buildings that have been demolished or are sitting vacant.
Recently, Godman Guild, a social services staple in the neighborhood, announced plans to relocate. The organization sold its East 6th Avenue building — once an elementary school for Black students during segregation — to developers.
Longtime resident LaWon Sellers, 39, was devastated when he found out D&J had been demolished.
“There are a lot of landmarks in my neighborhood that actually mean something to me, and to see them demolished into rubble is like a death in the family,” he said. “I compare our neighborhood to surrounding communities: Italian Village, the new Short North, Downtown and German Village. Look at all of those communities thriving with personally owned residential businesses. And we in Weiland Park have nothing of our own. We’ve asked for so many things and we’ve been denied, but told to sit still and watch them change it all around us.”
The carryout conversation
Sellers said residents depended on carryouts for quick, easy access to food and other necessities. He added that the criminal activity could have been stemmed with new management. Now that D&J is gone, he supports…
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