While downtown Fort Myers has grabbed the local spotlight with its redevelopment, Dunbar, the historic black community directly to the east, still lingers in its shadow.

Proximity sets Dunbar up to catch some spillover from downtown, including rising property values,

public road improvements and

beautification efforts. But those efforts are being received with mixed reactions in a community hobbled

for decades by poverty and high unemployment, crime and blight. While some applaud initiatives to pump new economic vitality into the area, others point to dispersing

residents and businesses as signs that the heart of the Dunbar community is fading.

Revamping Roadways

Veronica Shoemaker remembers how it used to be in some sections: dilapidated houses with dirt floors and no running water, and crime affronting residents from every side. You could barely drive down Anderson Avenue-as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard was known-without an encounter with a prostitute.

"It took quite a bit of time to bring us where we are today," says Shoemaker, a 23-year veteran of the Fort Myers City Council and owner of an eponymous florist shop on the boulevard. "A few say they can't see it, but I see it."

Perhaps the most visible change is the boulevard itself. Along with Palm Beach Boulevard, it is hailed by city leaders as a gateway to Fort Myers. State and city dollars have gone into widening and sprucing up the corridor-part of the Urban Infill and Redevelopment Plan undertaken by the city and county. (Although Fort Myers recently annexed part of Dunbar, the community includes city and unincorporated areas.)

Also in the city's sights is Veronica Shoemaker Boulevard-formerly Palmetto Avenue-which is being extended from Palm Beach Boulevard to Colonial Boulevard. "I understand there will be a lot of business as [Shoemaker Boulevard] up there gets completed," says its namesake.

The city is negotiating with town-planning firm Dover, Kohl & Partners and local planner Bill Spikowski to create master plans for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Shoemaker boulevards. The focus will be on land use, streetscapes and enhancing traffic flow. Workshops to get community input could be scheduled as soon as October, says city planning manager Elly Soto McKuen.

Palm Beach Boulevard is a future target for a corridor master design, says McKuen. Other city projects in Dunbar include an expansion (with help from The Bonita Bay Group) of Roberto Clemente Park, where the Black History Museum in the historic Williams Academy is located, and a program to redevelop lots for work-force housing.

Enterprise Center

The city's Southwest Florida Enterprise Center, prev-

iously known as the Business Development Center, also is positioned to boost the area's economy by nurturing entrepreneurial efforts. Manager Tom Scott plans to double the size of the business incubator, a facility on about eight acres along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. When Scott arrived at the end of 2001, 60 percent of the facility was vacant. Now it is filled to capacity, with 16 tenants in businesses ranging from hurricane shutters to a Jamaican restaurant. The center provides low-rent space and training for small and startup businesses.

"The whole idea for the center was [that] it was an incubator to start up new businesses that would eventually move out into the MLK corridor to occupy storefronts, maybe build new buildings and employ residents of the area," says Downtown Redevelopment Agency executive director Don Paight.

C.J. and Larry Jones ran Ultrasonic Country Cleaning from their home for about four years before moving into the center. The company cleans all types of window blinds and construction-site interiors, and the Joneses wanted a physical location so a customer with just one or two blinds could be served, says C.J. Jones. They moved into the enterprise center in September 2004, attracted by the affordable rent and access to I-75. It has since grown from three to five bays, about 1,100 square feet, and from eight to 15 employees.

Scott has provided guidance with projects such as an employee handbook, and the couple took the center's entrepreneurial course. "It gives you different ideas," says Jones.

Scott plans to expand training programs-with Edison College and the Lee County School District as partners-providing courses in technical skills, language for non-English speakers, and midlevel management training.

"The fact that [the center] sits in Dunbar is a benefit to this area," he says. It is helping build new business and bringing education opportunities to those who need to become employable as well as to those interested in improving their skills and management know-how. Its location is especially convenient for Lehigh Acres residents and downtown workers.

Scott sees signs-literally-that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is waking up economically. "You notice when you come through here how many 'for sale' signs there are, that wasn't true a year ago," he says. "It appeared to be land just sitting here." The redevelopment of the boulevard and the trickle-down effects of downtown real estate values are making the property along the road more attractive.

Lost Opportunities?

Redevelopment has been hard on businesses along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The city cracked down on code enforcement, condemned buildings and readdressed land uses; the state bought rights-of-way; and businesses and residents started abandoning the corridor as building space became scarcer and rents rose. Those who remained faced months of poor business during road construction.

"The road was really bad for all the businesses in this area," says Shoemaker. Not only did longtime businesses suffer, so did the Topps Supermarket, which opened in 2001 with much hoopla in the then-new Dunbar Shopping Center. Money to build the shopping plaza had been raised by Lee County Employment and Economic Development Corp. (LEEDCO Inc.), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to boost employment in the Dunbar area. Topps didn't last, and a charter school is slated to go into the space.

"It was devastating for a lot of people who were on this corridor when they were making those changes," says Dana Pierce, who co-owns Bill Pierce Bail Bonds and Alrite Bail Bonds Agency as well as a clothing business with husband Bill Pierce. People who had been paying rent of as little as $200 were left without options, she says. The buildings did need upgrading, she concedes, but she would like to have seen more affordable places provided so businesses wouldn't have to leave the community.

Some relocated to Fowler Street, Cleveland Avenue and other places away from the Dunbar community; because they were closely tied to the Dunbar market, some failed to flourish in their new locations, she says.

Dunbar, for all its challenges, has been a cohesive community, and the departure of businesses and residents is what some see as the result of efforts to break up the historically black community.

"We see other nationalities coming into the community and African-American businesses being bought out. If they're not being bought out, they're being pushed out," says Pierce. "In the next five to 10 years, this will no longer be the Dunbar community, and I think that's the whole plan."

Black athletes and entertainers such as Deion Sanders and Vonzell Solomon of American Idol fame have helped put Fort Myers on the map, but city leaders are failing to recognize what an asset they have in Dunbar as a destination for black tourism as well as for locals, she says. It could have been allowed to continue evolving into a mecca of beauty salons, clothiers, restaurants, entertainment spots and other businesses that cater to that market. She points to examples of African-American destinations in Chicago or Dallas, and Fort Myers' own Hispanic hub.

"Hispanics have done an excellent job on Palm Beach Boulevard. If you want to know where to go to get things of that culture, you know to go to Palm Beach Boulevard, and I think that is beautiful," says Pierce.

As residents and businesses leave Dunbar, Fort Myers loses its African-American center and the community loses its identity. "The natives and residents who actually live here and the businesses that made this area what it is today were just not embraced," Pierce says. "I'm just saddened, and hopefully they'll be able to recapture that."

Job-Builders

In addition to Southwest Florida Enterprise Center, businesspeople can find assistance in Dunbar at Quality Life Center, where Florida Gulf Coast University's Small Business Development Center will begin offering courses this fall, and through LEEDCO, which also manages the city's Enterprise Zone.

LEEDCO's chief executive officer Roy Kennix says the focus is on entrepreneur training and some level of commercial development with the goals of creating jobs for low- to moderate-income people and creating access to opportunities for micro- and small businesses. "A lot of that has to do with assisting businesses in securing financing," because minority small businesses can't always get funding through conventional sources, he adds.

Caspar White, owner of I Like It Like That Bakery on Velasco Street at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, knows all about financing obstacles. Poor credit and lack of collateral thwarted his attempts to borrow money, so he worked two jobs to raise money to launch the business and pay for the building he already had leased. For two years, the space sat empty; and when he finally started, it was with a four-and-a-half-quart table-top mixer and an oven large enough to hold only one sheet pan.

"Everything I bought that I have in that building is paid for by working two jobs and praying," he says. What's more, he opened while the boulevard was under construction. "A lot of people were telling me I wasn't going to make it there."

A year and a half later, people drive from as far as Fort Myers Beach or Burnt Store Road for his sweet potato/cream cheese pie, he says. He's overjoyed to have Fort Myers police and fire departments as clients, and he hopes a big order from a Lee County School district function will lead to a regular gig. He's adding three more people for a total staff of five, and starting to advertise.

"There were times it got really, really tough, but I wouldn't give up," he says. During those times, he remembered a friend's words of wisdom: "The road to success is always under construction."

White is the sort of small-businessperson who needs more help through creative and innovative financing options and "substantially more risk capital," says Kennix. He'd like to see more innovative types of funding, such as revolving-loan programs and assistance in accessing such federal programs as the New Markets Tax Credit. And instead of debt financing-with which small businesses can fail at the first sign of trouble-more equity-financing programs should be available, he says.

It's in the public interest, so governments must step forward, he insists. "We need economic development to create jobs. That's the answer to the crime problem," he says. "These things require a steady hand of commitment with a social bottom line. Profit may also be made, but that's not the goal."

Because of federal funding cuts, LEEDCO has been facing its own financing challenges and has been encouraging more collaboration with corporations and government agencies. Small businesses can provide specific services and act as subcontractors to general contractors, says Frankie Jennings, a LEEDCO board member, business owner and former city councilwoman.

For example, LEEDCO has partnered with the South Florida Water Management District, which is involved with the multibillion-dollar Everglades Restoration Project. One LEEDCO client did the landscaping on a project near Clewiston; another did the printing for a district project. Other partnerships have involved clients subcontracting for private construction companies, and Kennix hopes to extend those kinds of collaborations with developers working downtown.

"A lot of opportunities are emerging that require collaborative projects," says Kennix. "We don't have a lot of businesses in this area-minority or nonminority-that can act as prime contractors. But through the cultivation of relationships, we do have businesses that can act as subcontractors."

Dunbar hasn't yet benefited from the spike of activity downtown, but Jennings and Kennix are among those who anticipate a spillover effect, especially with an influx of housing priced to be affordable for people in the work force. The community has seen attrition, but more residents create more business opportunities, and more opportunities encourage people to stay. "There is hope that developers will start to support affordable housing, and if affordable housing takes place in the Dunbar area, it will bring about new growth, new jobs and new business," says Jennings. "But it needs a lot of help."