a violent car crash last summer on I95 in Miami claimed the life of a South Florida activist Daniel agnu and tonight his brother takes the lead in finding solutions to support local businesses displaced throughout Miami due to Rising rats but Danny had a vision he never stopped up until that last moment good evening and thank you for joining us I'm NAA Sherman and I'm Elliott Rodriguez Jim Barry has the night off CBS News Miami is Joe Goro spent time learning on a solution to help small business
es owners avoid the Philip agnu and his brother Daniel always dreamed of owning commercial real estate instead of renting out space to run their business ventures in Liberty City we got booted out I think that's the story of a lot of people in Miami landlords are uh taking the rent up to stratospheric levels Danny agu who brought to my attention that people being out booted from their spaces because of unaffordability Britney Moran is the senior director of economic resilience at the Miami Found
ation she knew Daniel well before died and witnessed the agnu struggle while he's no longer with us to be able to live on through his legacy of ownership small businesses they employ more employ more local folks they're more likely to give back to their community and they also create generational wealth for their families especially minority small business owners a solution came to light create a path for minority-led small business Partnerships to buy commercial real estate instead of rent in s
ome of Miami's historically underserved communities she says the Miami Foundation partnered with Wells Fargo to provide grants up to $500,000 of the purchase price in a forgivable loan invest money and leaders who've been doing work in the communities for decades but if they don't own they won't have much to show for it you got to see it that this is going to be a huge picture window right here where you'll be able to look in and see rows and rows of books see people reading see people having a
little coffee you can feel AG's excitement as he and his business partners receive Grant funds to buy this building in Liberty City they plan to open open their bookstore later this year how much pride do you have knowing this is yours uh I mean you know it's it's uh I'm speechless really yeah it's a whole lot of Pride to know that this is ours and it's going to be ours for a very very long time a store inspired by Daniel's dreams I think somewhere wherever he is whatever we believe uh heaven or
just floating around in The Ether that he's right now telling me I told you the Miami Foundation says they hope this initiative helps protect the cultural fabric of places like Liberty City alipa Overtown and other local communities right here in Miami that was CBS News Miami's Joe Goro reporting Morgan says the collective real estate ownership program through the foundation is accepting applications through April 15th for more information on how to apply go to our website cbsnews miami.com and
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