Roxbury's Black Market to Close May 31 After $1.3 Million Building Deal Collapses
Updated
Updated · The Boston Globe · May 22
Roxbury's Black Market to Close May 31 After $1.3 Million Building Deal Collapses
2 articles · Updated · The Boston Globe · May 22
Black Market said it will shut its Nubian Square space on May 31 after founders Kai and Chris Grant abandoned efforts to buy the Washington Street building they lease.
A 35-day fundraising push and mortgage review failed to produce a workable deal, with the Grants saying the acquisition's debt, capital costs and long-term obligations would be financially unsustainable.
Madison Park Development Corp., the nonprofit landlord, said Black Market chose to void an extension and leave within a week, while maintaining it had worked in good faith on a path forward.
The closure follows a dispute over the property, including an option to buy it for $1.3 million and $124,229.12 in unpaid rent accrued from 2021 to 2023.
Opened in 2017, Black Market had become a cultural hub and incubator for Black-owned businesses in Roxbury, and local officials called its loss a blow to Boston's Black economic development.
With millions invested in Nubian Square, why couldn't its Black-owned cultural hub survive?
A nonprofit landlord versus a Black-owned incubator: was this community partnership doomed from the start?