311 MLK–Building on The Future
Martin Luther King Drive in Jersey City has been a critical element of Rising Tide Capital’s founding story. When our co-founders, Alex and Alfa, first came to Jersey City 15 years ago, they walked up and down the Drive, learning from residents, business owners, and existing nonprofits alike about the assets as well as the challenges that existed in the community.
What they found was a lot of talent and entrepreneurial spirit, but a lack of access and infrastructure for residents to turn that talent into a sustainable solution — for their families or their communities.
As they stood on the Drive, Alex and Alfa knew that development and investment were happening on the waterfront of Jersey City — investment that would eventually reach the Greenville neighborhood, but not necessarily the people living there. For the past 15 years, Rising Tide Capital’s work has been shaped by Alex and Alfa’s commitment to providing a way for the residents of this community to benefit from the rising tide of opportunity that would make its way up the Drive.
From our headquarters on Martin Luther King Drive, we’ve become an organization that serves more than 1,000 entrepreneurs a year in both English and Spanish across six New Jersey communities. We launched our first national partnership and are currently working to expand our model across the United States in order to give other organizations the necessary tools to support their local entrepreneurs in sustainable and responsible business growth.
From this once thriving district of our founding city, we have seen the magic of aspiring business owners becoming entrepreneurial leaders — investing their talent and love into building enterprises that meet the vital needs of their communities.
Since that first small office, Rising Tide Capital has moved three times, but we’ve always stayed on the Drive, because we believe that the work we are doing must remain accessible to our community.
Now, just in time for our 15th anniversary, Rising Tide Capital is ready to make a financial investment into our community, ensuring that Martin Luther King Drive will be a critical part of our future.
Thanks to a coalition of both private and public supporters, Rising Tide Capital has purchased a building that will serve as our national headquarters, in the community where we have always existed. Combining affordable housing with classroom space, community space with co-working space, 311 MLK — our first Urban Entrepreneurship Accelerator — will create a place for our entrepreneurs to live, work, and co-build their community.
In a time of immense shifts in our economy — especially at the intersection of the future of work, climate change, and growing economic inequality — the restorative investors supporting 311 MLK bring their financial capital, knowledge capital, and social capital together to create an inspired reimagining of community building and shared prosperity.
311 MLK will be a home for our community’s entrepreneurial spirit and creativity. It will be a testament to the power of restorative investment, and the result of partnerships that create a space for talented community innovators to catalyze the transformation of our economy, one neighborhood at a time.
