PHOENIX — On the southeast corner of Van Buren and 14th streets, the Arnold Pickle House has sat for about a century. The historical building will now house a local nonprofit that’s helped bolster Black businesses for years, with goals to continue and expand their mission.
“This area that we’re in right now, East Lake Park, Black people weren’t allowed to buy property north of Van Buren,” said Ali Nervis, one of the founders of Archwood Exchange and the nonprofit ACRES. “Which is very significant for us to be doing the work that we're doing here, as it creates a new beginning. It creates opportunity. But it also can't be overstated, right, the injustice that we've suffered.”
Archwood Exchange and the nonprofit ACRES have been a hub in the Valley for Black businesses to market their products and a community to provide entrepreneurs with education and resources to help grow their businesses.
Now it’s finding a permanent home in downtown Phoenix's old Arnold Pickle House.
“Our goal is to let people know it’s okay to dream,” said Henry Dickerson, another founder of Archwood Exchange and ACRES.
All four founders, including Ali Nervis, Stacy Best-Nervis, Havana Dickerson and Henry Dickerson are entrepreneurs themselves, with three storefronts on Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix, including Straw and Wool, ACRES Retail Store, and Stardust & Sage. The businesses formed out of the Buy Black Marketplace Archwood hosts.
“It started off with just as a, you know, some would see it as a trend - Buy Black, recycling your dollars in the community. But I think over the past eight years, we've shown how it can be sustainable, and how you can not only sustain it, but you can actually grow and create generational wealth out of it,” Henry Dickerson said.
Business owners like Evelia Davis said she began her business The Diaspora Collective out of a 10-by-10 foot space at one of Archwood’s marketplaces a few years ago. Now, The Diaspora Collective has a permanent spot in Davis’ Latha Restaurant and Bar in downtown Phoenix.
“It gives you a safe space to kind of test out your idea that you have in your head, right? So you have all of these ideas of what you think, what you think people will like. It's a low-cost, safe way to do that with a super supportive community,” Davis said.
Soon, Maddie B’s Chicago Style Gourmet Popcorn will be sold in the ACRES retail store. Owners Michael and Bianca Dodd said Archwood has helped them grow their business too and believes the new space will help others do the same.
“It gives them an opportunity to see that we did it, you know, they did it. There's other people doing it. So come join the community,” Michael Dodd said.
The vision for The Archwood at East Lake is to not only to be a permanent home for the marketplace but to also house a business incubator, educational facilities, a studio and whatever else the community needs.
“Whatever is beneficial, whatever is useful and helpful to our progress. That's what we want to see in the space,” Henry Dickerson said.
The hope is the space will continue to provide opportunity and community for the future.
“Even for your smallest things if you spend - if you commit to spend a small amount with Black business that dollar will recycle in your neighborhood and your community,” Havana Dickerson said.
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