SOUTHWEST AREA : Pooling Funds for Property Investment

Much has been said in recent years about the crucial need for black people to invest in each other to build up their communities and form a solid economic base.

Toward that end, a group of 24 black professional men have formed the Collective Enterprise Group, which pools funds for investment in real estate in the black community.

“Our goal was twofold: to benefit the community and benefit ourselves,” said Donovan Green, 38, a Pacific Bell data center and operations manager who incorporated the collective in 1990. “We just finished our first project, an apartment complex at 2nd and Slauson Avenue. We bought the land, partnered with a black development company, and it was finished in May.”

Group members represent a wide diversity of professions--law, real estate development, bank management and political consulting, to name a few. Originally formed with a political focus, Green said the group shifted direction through initial discussions of how it could best aid the black community.

“During our talks at (former City Councilman) David Cunningham’s house, it became clear to us that we could help the most economically,” said Green, a Ladera Heights resident.

Group member Zephran Hamlin, an engineer at Pacific Bell, said the collective’s goal is to quickly target and convert blighted areas in Southwest Los Angeles.

“If we see blight on a street corner, we can buy and change it,” he said. “We can directly control the environment. We are investors who set up a win-win situation.”

Hamlin added that group members feel they have more of a stake in the community because most of them grew up and continue to live in the Southwest neighborhoods.

“Our group isn’t privileged,” he said. “We’re survivors. A lot of us didn’t come from model homes or backgrounds, but we do well for ourselves. We break stereotypes.”

In addition to property development, the group maintains a black male mentorship program with high school and college students, regularly interning two students as assistants who are trained in fields ranging from financial research to stock market analysis.

“The networking’s been fantastic,” said Carl Beverly, a Crenshaw resident and USC business administration major who interns with the group. “My main investment is just being in the presence of these brothers who are all so qualified and dedicated. I didn’t know they existed. Getting involved with them, getting plugged into all the people they know, is better than any monetary benefit I could have.”