A hulking beige brick constructing near St. Paul’s North End houses a cluster of BIPOC and women-owned small businesses starting from a clothing retailer and mental health professionals to an entertainment production company and a handful of private trainers.
Despite the apparent differences of their businesses, the entrepreneurs on the Mali Center, which opened in June, all share three essential details: They’re deeply dedicated to their community, they wear a number of hats and so they go way back with Tyrone Minor.
Minor, the founder and dreamer behind the Mali Center at 576 Front Ave., grew up within the Rondo neighborhood and attended St. Paul Central High School, Drake University and the University of Minnesota and now works as a physical education instructor in Osseo, Minn.
A gifted track and field athlete, Minor can also be the owner of private training business Chizel Inc. and health and fitness company the F.I.T. Lab, each of which at the moment are a part of the Mali Center.
“I’m at that stage of my life where I’m beginning to think concerning the legacy that I leave,” said Minor, who recently celebrated his 54th birthday.
When a longtime landlord decided to not renew Minor’s lease for the F.I.T. Lab in 2023 — “after seven years of never missing a rent payment,” Minor said — he knew it was time to make the leap.
“While you own industrial real estate, you’ll be able to provide opportunities for entrepreneurs,” Minor said. And that’s exactly what he’s doing on the Mali Center by offering business owners access to non-public offices, gym equipment, a conference room and an ecosystem of community-driven entrepreneurs.
‘Dream larger’
“We met within the third grade,” said Erick Goodlow about Tyrone Minor.
Goodlow is now the president of the Fairway Foundation, a nonprofit organization that exposes Black youth to the game of golf.
Golf teaches kids sportsmanship, integrity and ethics, Goodlow said, “because you might have to call your individual penalties.”
When Minor was renovating the 5,400-square-foot facility that might change into the Mali Center, he asked Goodlow what the Fairway Foundation needed.
“A net,” said Goodlow, for the golfers to practice their swings. “He told me to ‘dream larger.’ ”
The Fairway Foundation now has its very own golf simulator on the Mali Center. Much to the delight of the youngsters, the simulator will allow the golfers to proceed practicing within the winter months.
Dr. Jermaine M. Davis, a motivational speaker, creator and professor, was also approached by Minor to be a part of the Mali Center.
“What would make you should be an element of this?” he asked Davis.
Davis, who does a number of traveling to offer presentations and keynote speeches, said he wanted a spot where he could teach and host workshops.
On the Mali Center, they call it the “ingenuity room,” and it’s designed like a big conference room with desks, couches and the vital tech.
Aneesha Kelly, a mental health skilled who runs her company Purpose Health and Wellness from the Mali Center as she works toward her clinical license, also has hopes for the ingenuity room.
Kelly, who used to run track with Minor, said she hopes to make use of the ingenuity room to host group therapy sessions like grief group counseling and a gaggle for first responders of color.
Dr. Sheila Sweeney, a psychotherapist, creator and speaker behind Peaces ‘n PuzSouls, who first met Minor through his fitness classes, said she had quite a lot of reasons to maneuver her practice to the Mali Center.
Sweeney, who has a non-public office, said she will close her door when she needs privacy and likewise can collaborate with entrepreneurs like Kelly, Davis and Dr. Kasim Abdur Razzaq. “I’m in community after I’m here,” Sweeney said.
Razzaq, who’s a speaker, creator and psychotherapist, said he’s working to bring more Black men into the mental health field.
Of all of the tenants, Razzaq might need the shortest history with Minor; the 2 met just just a few years ago.
Come to seek out out, they each grew up within the Rondo neighborhood and Minor coached Razzaq’s sister in track. “It’s almost inconceivable that we didn’t meet earlier,” Razzaq said.
Now Razzaq’s office is round the corner to Sweeney’s, and he said the 2 “talk shop” and “bounce ideas off one another” on the Mali Center.
Other local entrepreneurs at the middle who’ve ties to St. Paul include Chadwick “Niles” Phillips, who was once coached by Minor and is now the founding father of entertainment production company The Avant Garde, and Robert “RL” Davis, a childhood friend of Minor’s who has his retail store RighteouSouls on the fundamental floor of the Mali Center.
Develop yourself and your small business
The first tenant of the Mali Center is the F.I.T. Lab, a state-of-the-art fitness facility, Minor said, which is rented out by some 10 different personal trainers to run their very own businesses.
Anne Schwalbe said her fitness business, Gentle Strength, may not have been possible without the resources of F.I.T. Lab.
Trying to get into the fitness space, Schwalbe said she was struggling to seek out the proper fit as she also works full-time in the general public health sector.
“I used to be on the lookout for a spot to go myself and felt like the proper place didn’t exist,” she said.
Schwalbe, who’s a mother in her 40s, decided to fill the area of interest herself and launched Gentle Strength with the support of F.I.T. Lab.
“I actually attempt to make it an inclusive space and reach individuals who would otherwise feel intimidated or misplaced on the gym,” Schwalbe said.
“I set my very own pricing, I bring my very own clients, my very own brand, do my very own marketing,” she said. “As a small business owner, this isn’t something I could have done if I attempted to open this by myself.”
Whitney Cantrell, owner of Workout With Whitney and Jamie Minor, owner of StrengthIN Consulting and the wife of Tyrone Minor, are only a few the opposite trainers who use the F.I.T. Lab to supply classes.
The workout equipment is offered for any members of the Mali Center, and its use is inspired, Minor said, as certainly one of his beliefs is, “You may’t develop your small business in the event you aren’t working on yourself.”
Michelle Dalluge, a private trainer and owner of Aspire Fitness, was in the same situation as Schwalbe and located support and resources through Minor and the F.I.T. Lab.
Dalluge has roughly 15 clients that she works with in personal training sessions, however the Mali Center offers her greater than only a training space.
In August, Dalluge was a part of a gaggle from the Mali Center that worked together to host a back-to-school Family Fun Night. The event gave out school supplies and free haircut vouchers and brought the community together, Minor said.
“Any business that’s financially benefiting from a community needs to be giving back to that community,” he said.
Don’t call it a coworking space
At first glance, the Mali Center may seem like a standard coworking space with desks, private offices, a kitchenette and entrepreneurs from different industries working under the identical roof, but Minor emphasizes that will not be the case.
Named for the Mali Empire in West Africa, the Mali Center empowers entrepreneurs to run their businesses how they like, Minor said, however the community he has assembled is greater than a sounding board.
Members of the Mali Center function like an ecosystem, Minor said, by offering one another support, resources and connections.
Johnny Allen Jr., the chief director of youth mentorship nonprofit the JK Movement, said the Mali Center has an open-door policy with the organization and the 2 often work together.
Although the mentorship program operates from the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center a few miles away, Allen said they still profit from the resources and community that Minor has assembled by working with members like Razzaq and utilizing the gym space.
“Tyrone works from the kindness of his heart and desires to see all people succeed and flourish. … The Mali Center is an example of what an equal system may be if run by the proper individuals who have the proper vision,” Allen said.
“I consider we have now created a model for a way you’ll be able to construct generational health and wealth,” Minor said. “That is my dream come true.”