© 2024 WFAE

Mailing Address:
8801 J.M. Keynes Dr. Ste. 91
Charlotte NC 28262
Tax ID: 56-1803808
90.7 Charlotte 93.7 Southern Pines 90.3 Hickory 106.1 Laurinburg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
A skyline that sprouts new buildings at a dizzying pace. Neighborhoods dotted with new breweries and renovated mills. Thousands of new apartments springing up beside light rail lines. The signs of Charlotte’s booming prosperity are everywhere. But that prosperity isn’t spread evenly. And from Charlotte’s “corridors of opportunity,” it can seem a long way off, more like a distant promise than the city’s reality.

Charlotte names Corridors of Opportunity grant recipients

A street sign
Ely Portillo
/
WFAE
Druid Hills, in Charlotte's North End corridor of opportunity.

On Wednesday, city leaders announced the recipients of the Business Opportunity Hub grants, meant to support nonprofit organizations within the city’s designated low-income six Corridors of Opportunity. The $4.45 million was allocated after City Council approval on Monday.

Speaking in west Charlotte, Mayor Vi Lyles said the grants will create a more equitable city.

“The Business Opportunity Hub grant not only empowers the Corridor but strengthens all of Charlotte, ensuring that our city’s future is one of inclusivity and prosperity,” Lyles said.

The following nonprofits will receive money:

  • Albemarle/Central Avenue: Latina America Chamber of Commerce
  • Sugar Creek: She Built This City
  • Beatties Ford/Rozelles Ferry: LISC Charlotte
  • Freedom/Wilkinson: Freedom Communities
  • North End: The Hispanic Contractor Association of the Carolinas
  • West Boulevard: The NEO Foundation

"We are thrilled to partner with the City of Charlotte to bring an Entrepreneurship Hub to the Freedom Drive Corridor," said Hannah Beavers, executive director of Freedom Communities.
"The Hub will provide both an affordable space to operate and a space to receive advice, training, and connections to support West Side entrepreneurs with taking their businesses to the next level, attribution," said Beavers.

The Corridors of Opportunity are areas in Charlotte that have been historically underserved and the city wants to spark growth in those locations for future generations.

Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter

Select Your Email Format

Kenny is a Maryland native who began his career in media as a sportswriter at Tuskegee University, covering SIAC sports working for the athletic department and as a sports correspondent for the Tuskegee Campus Digest. Following his time at Tuskegee, he was accepted to the NASCAR Diversity Internship Program as a Marketing Intern for The NASCAR Foundation in Daytona Beach, Florida in 2017.