A grand opening and dedication ceremony was held on Friday, June 30, 2023, to name the Abdul Sm Rasheed Center for Entrepreneurship, located at 5800 Faringdon Place in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The building previously served as headquarters for the NC Community Development Initiative (The Initiative) until 2020 when it merged with the NC Institute of Minority Economic Development – now known as the National Institute of Minority Economic Development (the Institute). Lew Myers, Board Chairman of the Institute remarked, “My heart is full–this is just a momentous occasion when we are naming a building in Raleigh for a brother who has toiled in the vineyard, doing hard work, doing it at an excellent level–it’s an inspiration!”

After the 2020 merger, over $2 million was raised to provide much-needed building repairs, renovations, and up-fitting with state-of-the-art technology to create an entrepreneurial student learning lab. Investors in the Lab include Wells Fargo, Bank of America, the Lenovo Foundation, and the NC General Assembly.

“This is a special place, which we felt needed to be preserved,” said Kevin J. Price, President and CEO of the National Institute of Minority Economic Development. “This was the beacon on the hill for high-performing community development corporations across the state to learn best practices, build their capacity, learn from one another, receive operating support, and sometimes even tough love when we needed it. It was a close-knit family that produced. So much so that in 2014, The Initiative documented over $1 billion of community development activity statewide–at the helm of this great work was Abdul.”

In attendance at the grand opening ceremony was NC Attorney General Josh Stein who commented, “Abdul is truly a foundational leader to the community economic development movement in North Carolina. He has facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in low-wealth communities.” Also in attendance was Governor Cooper’s Chief of Staff, Kristi Jones who commented “I am a product of Abdul’s work and consider myself the first entrepreneur of the Abdul Sm Rasheed Center for Entrepreneurship.”

In light of the community development work that Dr. Abdul Sm Rasheed has accomplished, it is fitting that this facility has now been repurposed to address the needs of today when minority and female college students have substantially more student debt than their white and male counterparts and have a much harder time accessing financial resources to support their entrepreneurial ventures.

The Abdul Sm Rasheed Center for Entrepreneurship houses a Learning Lab offering minority and women college students and recent college graduates an effective entrepreneurial pathway. This state-of-the-art facility engages academic professionals from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), corporate and financial mentors, and highly experienced professionals from the Institute to provide business education, mentorship, loan-readiness support, pitch preparation and competitions, and venture capital opportunities.

“This lab will function as a bridge over many barriers that have hindered growth and limited opportunities in our community for many years”, said Ron Leeper, former Initiative Board Chairman.

Dr. Rasheed said, “I am just humbled to be associated with this idea, which has tremendous, tremendous potential. This notion of a Center for Entrepreneurship to serve our community and neighborhoods going forward has tremendous potential–I believe that if this center stays steadfast toward its potential, stays in touch with its capacity, and works with what it has right within its hand, we will see tremendous results and impact in the future that will benefit all of our communities, all of our families, students [and] small businesses all over the country.”

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