The two-unit building at 253-257 Roxbury St. near Nubian Square will be the new home of BECMA.

For years, the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA) has had its headquarters in multiple different locations across Boston. Now, it is in the process of relocating to its permanent home just a couple blocks from Nubian Square.

This move was made possible with help from the city and the Barr Foundation, which provided funding for the organization to relocate.

Nicole Obi, president and CEO of BECMA, explained that the Barr Foundation gave a strong offer of support where it would donate $500,000, if BECMA could raise the same amount, which it did and acquired $1 million. However, BECMA was still short and had to take out a loan to purchase the property.

“It met all of our needs.

It’ll allow us to open our doors to our members in this community, but it’ll also give us the space to continue to build out our team and then co-locate with other organizations,” Obi said. It was just a perfect spot, a reasonable purchase price and the building was in relatively good shape, so we thought it was just the right opportunity for us.”

The two-unit building at 253-257 Roxbury St. was scouted out by former BECMA board chair Teri Williams, now president of OneUnited Bank, and purchased last December. Costing around $1.5 million, the new location will provide a space where BECAM will be able to carry out its work in supporting Blackowned businesses.

“Since 2022 we’ve had four offices, so that’s pretty disruptive to have to keep packing up and moving. Part of one of our four pillars around building wealth is ownership, and having that ownership, we believe, is going to give us the stability that we need as an organization to continue to grow and to support our community,” said Obi.

Last month, the Boston Planning and Development Agency board authorized a $100,000 grant to go towards the BECMA Sustainability Hub.

Obi said the sustainability hub encompasses the organization, the community and the environment.

She explained that it’s how BECMA plans to sustain itself with the need to grow and thrive and tie back to the community in Roxbury and be able to support businesses.

She added that it also focuses on sustainability from a climate point of view on how businesses and startups can be part of the clean energy industry to help Massachusetts reach its climate goals.

“What we really want to be able to do is have the sustainability hub serve as a place for entrepreneurs to come and engage and also conduct their business in the climate space there. I feel that this is one of those times that’s almost a once in a lifetime opportunity for businesses to really grow into a sector that they can be a part of,” she said.

Currently, BECMA is located at Roxbury Community College’s (RCC) Business Innovation Center (BIC), where it uses the location as a shared workspace. BECMA moved there around the same time BIC opened.

“We built this partnership initially, just saying, ‘Hey, we have space, we would love for you to operate out of RCC, and so we can have students learn about BECMA. So, we can have businesses that are coming to get support from the Business Innovation Center have easy access to BECMA, so we can work together on events on campus and for the broader community.’ So we’ve done all that over the past year, and we continue to do that,” said Luciano Ramos, executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Justice at RCC.

The partnership between the BIC and BECMA has strengthened the support for both, helping to increase their visibility and impact in the community.

“We’ve done collaborations there. We haven’t necessarily done a specific program out of the business center, but we’ve definitely been partnering more closely with RCC than we ever have. And so even after we move, we hope to continue to build on that relationship,” said Obi.

With BECMA’s 10th anniversary coming up this November, plans for a celebration remain up in the air.

“We don’t have anything planned yet. We do want to do something around our anniversary, but nothing has been scheduled at this time,” Obi said.

Right now, BECMA is renovating its new headquarters and will still be located at RCC. As it transitions to its new home, the move to a permanent location will represent a new opportunity for BECMA’s growth and lasting commitment to Black businesses in the community and across the commonwealth.

“BECMA has done a tremendous job both securing access to capital, as well as opening up pathways for Black businesses to gain access to additional capital and funding support. I think their location in Roxbury makes perfect sense and I do think that they are on the forefront of helping to bridge the economic divide,” said Ramos.