By: Eric Addison
Alumni-Led Businesses Highlight the Value of the Northwood Commons Redevelopment
The $50-million redevelopment of Northwood Plaza Shopping Center as Northwood Commons promised big benefits to Morgan State University and the broader community, and the project has delivered. The 100,000-square-foot venue, adjacent to Morgan’s West Campus, provides attractive new homes for the Morgan State University Barnes & Noble Bookstore and Morgan’s Police and Public Safety Department, and offers a lineup of retail establishments that provide essential and high-demand services. Among those are five businesses owned or led by Morgan State University graduates.
The large alumni presence isn’t happenstance, explains Tiffany Hawkins, shareholder with the New York City-based wealth management firm Momentum Advisors and a member of Morgan’s Class of 2005. Hawkins and Momentum Advisors’ founder, managing partner and chief investment officer, Allan Boomer, of Morgan’s Class of 1999, founded Momentum Advisors’ Franklin Morgan fund, which owns the ZIPS Cleaners at Northwood Commons.
“I’ll give the (Northwood Commons) developers some credit. We got connected with them very, very early, and they asked us if we knew anymore Morgan alum and minority business owners who wanted to be tenants in the development…. We see them as Northwood has opened: Morgan alum — minority-owned franchisees and non-franchise system (business owners). That was by design. That was not by accident,” Hawkins says.
Besides the ZIPS Cleaners franchise, the list of Morgan alumni-controlled businesses at Northwood Commons includes Tropical Smoothie Café, a franchise owned by the spouse team of David and Alesha Magby (’03 and ’04); the McDonald’s restaurant franchise, which is owned by Brittney Bell, ’07; the Beauty Plus beauty supply store, a franchise owned by Quintin Lathan (Morgan Class of 2004) and his wife, Megan; and the Northwood Commons branch of The Harbor Bank of Maryland. The bank and its holding company, Harbor Bancshares Corp., is chaired by Harbor Bank Cofounder Joseph Haskins Jr., of Morgan’s Class of 1971, who stepped down from the chief executive officer post in April of last year.
Drawn by History
Haskins earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Morgan, but his passion for African American history played a large role in his decision to expand Harbor Bank to Northwood Commons.
“I arrived at Morgan in ’67 and had learned about the marching by students less than five years earlier to help integrate Northwood to gain access to many of their facilities,” Haskins recalls. “…And then what also triggered my interest was having moved around the country and having attended a number of colleges and universities and noticing that around the majority schools, there were always robust retail and services available within walking distance. In the case of Northwood, I watched it decline to a point where you had two establishments remaining, one being a liquor store and the other (a food market). The last one to go was the liquor store…. And yet what I also noticed was that when Morgan faculty and administrators needed to meet and wanted to sit in a restaurant environment, it was not available for them to walk to.”
Haskins and Harbor became involved in conceptualizing and financing Northwood Commons years before construction began, when the shopping center’s owners and later Morgan President David K. Wilson approached Haskins seeking input. Early on, Haskins says, he decided “that not only did I just want to bring financial resources to the table, I thought it was important (for Harbor Bank) to have a presence there…for the benefit of African American students who could pass through and see an enterprise with a cofounder who’s a graduate of Morgan as well as see a financial institution that was thriving.”
And thriving it is, Haskins reports, with ample depositors including Morgan students from out of state and merchants at Northwood Commons, among others. The branch has high-tech tools for customers and welcomes community organizations to hold meetings in the facility, he reports. The community outreach is aligned with the goal set by Harbor Bank’s founders at its launch in 1982, Haskins says: “Harbor’s intentions are to be not only a provider of financial services but also to be a catalyst for economic development, and that’s its mission.”
…Not only did I just want to bring financial resources to the table, I thought it was important (for Harbor Bank) to have a presence there.
– Joseph Haskins, ’71
Board Chair, The Harbor Bank of Maryland
Motivated to Give
The other Morgan alumni entrepreneurs at Northwood Commons are equally committed to “giving back.
“My short- and long-term goals right now are to continue giving back to Morgan,” says McDonald’s restaurant owner Brittney Bell, a Family and Consumer Sciences graduate of Morgan, from Columbia, Maryland. Bell says she employs many Morgan students, encourages them to take advantage of McDonald’s Archways to Opportunity scholarships for college students and arranges for McDonald’s to make financial contributions to the University. Bell, a second-generation McDonald’s franchise owner, had a “very scholarly, very focused” experience as a Morgan undergraduate then taught high school for five years in Howard County, Maryland, before joining her family business. Her parents and two siblings own 43 McDonald’s restaurants in total. Brittney also owns the franchise for the McDonald’s at Harford and Moravia Roads, about a mile from Morgan’s campus. Her Northwood Commons restaurant, she says, has more than tripled McDonald’s revenue projection.
My short- and long-term goals right now are to continue giving back to Morgan.
– Brittney Bell, ’07
Owner/Operator, McDonald’s Northwood Commons
Beauty Plus owner Quintin Lathan says he had an entrepreneurial spirit long before he earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Morgan. But he says giving is as strong a motivation in his career as is bringing in revenue.
“Giving as many kids a shot in the beauty (industry) as possible is definitely my goal,” says Lathan, who was born and raised in Baltimore City, “and opening up their minds to (the fact that) there’s more than one way to do things. You can be in beauty retail. You can launch your own brand. You can be a cosmetologist. You can be an aesthetician. Just giving them opportunities to see that they can do it, too.”
A large percentage — 90 to 95% — of his staff are Morgan students, who learn, he says, that beauty retail is “a blue-collar business…. It’s actually blue-collar, roll up your sleeves work.”
The Lathans opened their first Beauty Plus location in Baltimore’s Charles Village neighborhood in 2016, and Quintin says he began messaging developer Mark Renbaum to ask about tenant opportunities at the proposed Northwood project that same year. His persistence paid off: business at Northwood Commons has “exceeded all my expectations,” Lathan says, and he hopes to open more stores in the Baltimore Metropolitan area.
Giving as many kids a shot in the beauty (industry) as possible is definitely my goal.
– Quintin Lathan, ’04
Co-owner, Beauty Plus Northwood Commons
Spreading the Wealth
Prince George’s County, Maryland, natives David and Alesha Magby met as undergraduates at Morgan, where Alesha earned her bachelor’s in Information Science and Systems and David earned his in Business Administration. The couple, both lifetime members of the Morgan State University Alumni Association, has a long love story that includes Tropical Smoothie Café.
“A Tropical Smoothie opened in the area we reside in, which is Bowie, Maryland, and we stumbled across it one day. And we just couldn’t get enough of it,” David recalls. “…It was just a healthier food option for us.”
In 2018, they decided to try to gain income by spreading that wealth, purchasing a Tropical Smoothie franchise in Temple Hills, Maryland. The Northwood Commons location is their fourth.
“Our (short-term) goal is to serve as many people as possible, (bringing) healthier food options into the communities that are underserved,” David says. “…Long term, we are thinking generationally…. I would love to affect two or three generations behind us: young adults that are coming up now through college and high school. We want to be something they can look at and say, ‘You know what? I know I can do this, because I’ve seen them do it.’”
“We’re in the people business,” says Alesha. “And we do create opportunities for young individuals who didn’t have any type of plan. They end up sticking with us, and as we grow, they grow.”
“We’re also (here) to give back to the place that made us,” she adds, Morgan State University.
Our (short-term) goal is to serve as many people as possible, (bringing) healthier food options into the communities that are underserved…. Long term, we are thinking generationally.
– David Magby, ’04
Co-owner, Tropical Smoothie Café Northwood Commons
Spreading the Wealth
Allan Boomer and Tiffany Hawkins were already success stories in the franchising arena when they, too, decided to spread the wealth. Several years after working with a silent partner to land a nine-store ZIPS Cleaners development deal in Maryland, in 2016, they decided to launch Franklin Morgan Partners to build or acquire more ZIPS locations by raising money from a variety of investors.
“Most of them are Black or are HBCU grads that invest in our development of dry cleaners,” Hawkins says. “…We are currently the largest franchisee in the system,” adds Hawkins, who is also heading the Marketing Subcommittee for ZIPS.
“I would also add that we have a lot of Morgan State alumni in the (Franklin Morgan) fund, as well,” says Boomer.
Building the Northwood Commons ZIPS, to have a footprint near Morgan, was a very high priority for the partners, Hawkins relates, so much so that they purchased two other ZIPS locations near Baltimore City to get ZIPS’ permission to proceed. University campuses are generally great locations for dry cleaners, Hawkins says, but she and Boomer say their business presence at Northwood Commons is also more personal.
“When it comes to the Northwood store, it’s super important for us to be an opportunity to hire,” Boomer says, “and we really want to hire management trainees, front counter staff, all sorts of (personnel), to give them career opportunities in hospitality or dry cleaning or management.”
“And not only do we want to hire. We want to be able to train and expose more students to the franchise system,” Hawkins says, “whether it’s ZIPS or not…. We are huge, huge advocates for Morgan State University.”
“…Not only do we want to hire. We want to be able to train and expose more students to the franchise system.
– Tiffany Hawkins, ’00
ZIPS Cleaners Northwood Commons; Shareholder, Momentum Advisors
