By Ayesha Hana Shaji
Texas Metro News
Collaborative, connective and community.
The three words VR Small, founder and CEO of Veteran Women’s Enterprise Center, uses to describe Comerica Bank’s new venture – Business HQ.
Comerica Bank transformed idle real estate at their East R.L. Thornton location into a collaborative community space for small businesses.
The Business HQ will operate as a part of the Dallas Small Business Ecosystem and will help small businesses with capital, cultivation and connectivity, according to Brandon Jones, vice president of regional external affairs at Comerica Bank.
For Jones, wanting to do more and leveraging the bank’s resources to benefit the community was inspiration enough. “I think it all boils down to we have to help small businesses in South Dallas, we really have to do a much better job at supporting small businesses in underestimated communities.”
The 8,000-square-foot space offers incubator offices, conference rooms, administrative offices, co-working spaces, private rooms and even a content creation room with sound-defining paint, insulated doors, teleprompters, ring lights and green screens available.
All the rooms in the space are named after a Southern Dallas neighborhood or a Dallas neighborhood, Jones said.
Memberships are available after a vetting process done by the Business HQ team and they are needbased and the membership is for one year.
Members can book the room spaces through an online reservation system, said Kayla Nimer, Business HQ success manager.
Jones said one-third of the room spaces are held by the Veteran Women’s Enterprise Center.
“Comerica has been an amazing partner. Last year when we were kind of pushed out of our original space, Comerica was a god-send,” Small said, adding they’ve been “homeless” and had to work remotely for a while.
Since their partnership with Comerica, they were able to move into the new space completely free of charge and with additional grants to help shift back to in-person mode.
“I really believe Comerica values us,” Small added. Harrison Blair, president of Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce said many of his partners come to him saying they don’t have spaces to hold business meetings or access to basic resources to help get on their feet.
“Sometimes you need to just shred a document for your security and safety, sometimes you need to come access Wi-Fi or the printer,” Blair said. “This could be amazing for somebody to really step into business.”
The opening of the Comerica Business HQ in the South Dallas neighborhood is a positive development for the community, which has historically been underserved by financial institutions and resources for small businesses. The Business HQ will be open and functioning in May.
Ayesha Hana Shaji is a 2022 graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington, where she was on The Shorthorn staff.
