Entrepreneur Tony A. Reimonenq Jr, along with his wife and three sons, recently closed a deal on a 20-unit strip mall in the Oak Grove community of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The family plans to transform the property into a local version of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Historic Greenwood District, widely known as the original Black Wall Street.
The purchase places the Reimonenq family among Mississippi’s roughly three percent of African Americans to have ever independently brokered a million-dollar deal.
Empowering Black-Owned Businesses
The Reimonenq family’s mission is to create its own version of the historic Black Wall Street of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Greenwood District as well as the unsung Black Wall Street of Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Empowering and equipping individuals to become entrepreneurs is a central point in their motivation.
“I’ve always had a heart to help others succeed, but to do that I first had to succeed,” says Tony Reimonenq, CEO of the family-owned enterprise. “I’ve dreamed of having a location from which others like myself can work and draw inspiration from Tulsa’s Greenwood District.”
Reimonenq also operates a nonprofit, the Linked Up Empowerment Center, according to Black Business.
“I want to empower the people at the bottom of the pyramid who just need an opportunity,” he added. “They aren’t lazy. They work hard but just haven’t learned how to win yet. I know how and want to link up with them to be a part of helping to not only change the trajectory of their lives and the lives of their families but of our communities as a whole. I see it as a civic duty.”
Despite nearly a year of negotiations, roadblocks, and being turned down by banks, Reimonenq was able to land a creative financing deal to secure the acquisition.
Greenwood Plaza is the proposed name of the plaza and is the second major commercial expansion of their family-owned firm, Reimonenq & Co LLC.
