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2022 ANNUAL REPORT

NASHID SABIR

Chairman of the Board

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

For the Board of OLCDC, now known as the Ten North Group, 2022 proved to be a year of lay-ups and free throws, to use a basketball analogy – a year of executing on the basics to ensure the organization’s sustainability long into the future. Building on the organization’s post-pandemic commitment to find solutions that lead to wealth building and social change, we as a Board of Directors were tasked with executing practical and tactical moves to get us there – lay-ups and free throws.

During 2022, we heard the reports and deliberated on what we would call ourselves going forward, our branding strategy. After providing our own input, and hearing from our consultants, our staff, and our stakeholders, the Board of Directors unanimously approved the name Ten North Group as the new name under which our parent company, its affiliates, and subsidiaries, will do business. We as a Board determined that the name Ten North Group was more than appropriate because it aptly describes our roots and our history in the City of Opa-locka, the city that is located ten miles North of the City of Miami and is described as such in historical texts. The name is thus, a conversation starter, a way to open new doors to new opportunities, while we honor and describe our past without limiting or inhibiting what is to come.

During 2022, we also voted on a series of measures and approved a series of initiatives that, while not headline grabbing, are the building blocks for carrying out our Strategic Plan, now in its third year – again, lay-ups and free throws. Those measures included strategic real estate asset acquisitions and approval of our City Terrace Development Plan (done after extensive planning meetings and workshops with our consultants and stakeholders). The development of City Terrace, currently expected to occur in several phases, will transform Downtown Opa-locka into a vibrant and livable hub for affordable housing, commerce, and community and social engagement. We also received the Risk Management Plan implementation strategy (to implement the recommendations and best practices from the Nonprofit Risk Management Center’s 2021 report).

On the arts and culture front, the Board of Directors was also presented with a series of initiatives that will help the organization maximize the opportunities for building “a strong ecosystem of art, culture and creative place-making” – including receiving the Art Foundation’s Art Collection Two Year Plan, which opened the door to begin the creation of a Five-Year Strategic Plan. The Board of Directors also approved the Art of Transformation Art Basel Program for 2022, our most ambitious yet, which permitted our organization to re-imagine and re-purpose previously blighted, neglected, and overlooked spaces in Opa-locka with our five-day program of arts, culture, food, and entertainment, which we used to change people’s perceptions of the community’s potential; to re-write the narrative of the City; and, most importantly, to create a palpable energy, a feeling of excitement, and a newfound sense

of pride. It also led to an unprecedented honor, as our organization was included in the official calendar of events for Art Basel Miami Beach 2022 for our educational program: Africa Becoming Panel Discussion | Opa-locka Community Development Corporation (Saturday, December 3, 2022).

I believe that I speak for my colleagues on the Boards of Ten North Group and its subsidiaries and affiliates when I say that the year of lay-ups and free throws was an extremely productive one – a year that will prove foundational as we continue to chart our course into the future.

Chairman, Nashid Sabir

WILLIE LOGAN

President & Chief Executive Officer

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

As we enter the post-Covid years, we are excited about Ten North Group's (formally OLCDC), plans for the future. Throughout the pandemic, we have strategically shifted the trajectory of the organization to a new paradigm with a sense of urgency and purpose. The continued problems of inequality, a divided nation, and the threat to our democracy have made us more determined to find solutions leading to wealth-building and social change.

 

We have adjusted our business model to take full advantage of our assets, partnerships, and financial resources to maximize the opportunities for building a strong “ecosystem of art, culture and creative- place-making.”  We serve as Place-Makers in the rebuilding of communities, providing affordable housing, creating business opportunities, and bringing greater awareness by supporting and expanding the African Diaspora experience to the broader community.

You may wonder how we are achieving this?

First, we have been open and persistent in assessing our internal operations and infrastructure which has led to the formation of a corporate model where we have transitioned several of our programs into affiliates by injecting both talent and resources for scaling up their growth.  This transformation has led us to a name change grounded in our history while serving a broader geography.

We continue to leverage our real estate assets and fiscal management to support new developments, such as our signature capital project “City Terrace.”  We have acquired sufficient parcels and commissioned a land-use study to support the redevelopment of a new downtown residential community in Opa-Locka that reflects its architectural heritage.   Much of the visioning and planning has been done.  The next step is its implementation.

Since 2010, we’ve had a vigorous commitment to the arts by educating, advocating, and integrating the African Diaspora cultural and historic experience as part of revitalizing Black and Brown communities. This has led to multiple collaborations and initiatives, including Art Basel Miami Beach in 2022, and then again in 2023.

On behalf of our Board and staff, we give thanks and are grateful for the broad support Ten North Group has received from the public and private sectors. We are in this together. Our success is also your success.

 

We welcome the opportunity to share our history, our plans, and to partner with like-minded people who want to see all the residents of Miami-Dade flourish. Please let us know how we can work together.

 

President & Chief Executive Officer, Willie Logan

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WHO IS TEN NORTH GROUP?

Ten North Group is a forty-year-old mission-driven real-estate development organization and community builder. Our companies facilitate equitable access to affordable housing and wealth-building opportunities for under-resourced communities. We are a dedicated team of individuals who are passionate about significantly augmenting affordable housing. We use the arts and culture to write the future stories of previously overlooked Black and Brown communities like Opa-locka, a city of 16,000 ten miles north of Miami. Decades ago, we started as the Opa-locka Community Development Corporation, and we have evolved to the Ten North Group. Our scale of impact, name and logo may be different; however, our passion and our mission are the same.

OUR MISSION

We transform lives by facilitating equitable access to affordable housing and wealth building opportunities for under-resourced communities burdened by systemic racism and bias.

OUR VISION

We are passionate about eradicating economic and housing disparity while building communities where every person, regardless of race or economic standing, can have equitable access to wealth-building opportunities.

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HOW WE LEAD

  • Providing communities with wealth-building opportunities that support long term sustainability.

  • Becoming known as “business-friendly,” with incentives, capital, technical assistance, and a skilled workforce.

  • Investing in a continuum of career solutions for families, advancing the educational needs of today’s youth and the labor force of tomorrow.

  • Being a community of choice where housing is accessible to all income groups.

  • Providing gathering places that fuel the arts and promote unique cultural and social experiences.

  • Building on the area’s heritage, its airport, and other local industries.

  • Enhancing pedestrian-friendly public spaces through urban design that invites and promotes healthy living.

  • Serving as a national model and voice on housing and neighborhood transformation.

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OUR EVOUTION TO TEN NORTH GROUP 

BUILDING FOR OUR FUTURE WHILE HONORING OUR PAST

In 2022, with the assistance of the national brand positioning and design firm MOK2, we began the journey of rebranding our organization. We are now Ten North Group. The name is derived from historical materials which described the area now known as Opa-locka as a parcel of land ten miles North of Miami. To this day, Opa-locka is still described in this manner by long-term residents and our leaders and long-serving Board members have attested to the fact that when describing the location of Opa-locka, they still respond that it is, “Ten miles north of Miami.” It is fitting that our name weaves the story of our roots in Opa-locka into our brand narrative – giving us the opportunity to tell a deeper and more meaningful story, as we move forward to a new phase in our organization’s development.

The icon in the new Ten North Group logo is meant to tell the story our of company, and is made up of six individual pieces, each one represents one of our affiliate brands that make up Ten North Group. Together, the pieces become a solid, reinforced shape that represents our powerful mission.

CITY TERRACE

The Redevelopment of a Downtown Residential Community

Under the leadership of the Vice-Chairman, of our real estate affiliate, Francisco Garcia Iglesias, we brought together our expert consultants from Plusurbia Design, Flux Architects, BusinessFlare, and The Safedesign Institute, together with members of our Boards of Directors, key stakeholders, and staff, for a three-day charette to create a Master Plan for the re-development and revitalization of Downtown Opa-locka. The Master Plan takes a broad look at the general area where Ten North Group’s properties are located and establishes a long-term vision for the revitalization of the entire area.

By taking a holistic approach, the Plan provides strategies to achieve Ten North Group’s goals and objectives in partnership with other private entities, government, and public agencies. This comprehensive blueprint considers opportunities for Ten North Group arising from the adjacent Tri-Rail Station, and it proposes synergies as the entire area responds to the development of housing, commercial, retail, community services and entertainment spaces. The Master Plan acknowledges that while Ten North Group’s development will serve as a catalyst to Opa-locka, a coordinated effort with the City of Opa-locka is key to maximize the area’s potential. This will ensure each intervention builds towards the Downtown‘s revitalization and creates a downtown destination community that provides a mix of housing choices combined with viable and desirable retail, community services and entertainment spaces.

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OUR ROLE AS PLACE MAKERS

The power of art in revitalizing communities has been proven time and time again.

 

We know and have experienced in Miami how the visual arts, music, poetry, literature, theater, fashion, film, and architecture drive the vibrancy and economy of many neighborhoods. At Ten North Group, we are committed to doing our part to ensure South Florida’s under-resourced communities can be enriched by the arts, opening the imagination of our youth and those who yearn to be creative.

 

Our approach to the arts is to be catalytic by serving as a place-maker in rebuilding communities, creating business opportunities within the creative economy, and bringing greater awareness in supporting and exposing African Diaspora Art to the broader community. We also seek to play an advocacy role within the art ecosystem to both penetrate the art market and promote changes that support artists who have been marginalized for decades by the current system. We seek out ways to build, enhance, and sustain the creative economy of Black and Brown communities without displacement by providing opportunities to engage and learn from the arts reflective of our diasporic heritage.

 

Since 2010, Ten North Group has played an active role in the arts through a variety of programs that include education, the acquisition of a permanent collection, exhibitions, and public art installations. As creative place-makers, we integrate the role of art within our community development work. And, 2022 saw us redouble our focus to use art as a revitalization tool through our arts and education programs, our continued efforts to collect and exhibit art and to integrate works of commissioned art into our real estate projects, and our new initiatives, which include the creation of arts and crafts residency programs in the United States and Africa.

 

We firmly believe that by recognizing and utilizing the architectural, social, artistic, and cultural history of Black and Brown communities, and by marrying the arts and culture as part of Ten North Group’s larger development strategy, we can ensure that communities have the possibility to reinvent themselves without being displaced.  

 

We are excited that in 2022, Ten North Group’s Arts Foundation, formed in 2016, along with Ten North Group’s affiliates, played a significant role in advancing both creative place-making and place-keeping in the City of Opa-Locka and beyond.

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COMMUNITY ACTIVATION PROGRAMS

COMMUNITY REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENTS

Villas del Lago: During the last quarter of 2022 and the first half of 2023, Ten North Group has embarked in a major Real Estate development planning and project execution effort that includes the substantial rehabilitation of Villas del Lago, being renamed Ernie Martin Villas, and Mary Alice Brown, formerly Aswan Village Apartments, totaling 504 affordable housing units in Miami Gardens and Opa-locka, and which will result in an investment of approximately $169MM.

 

The planned renovations will result in these two projects being certified as green, and will enhance the quality of life of the residents and also result in costs saving because of the energy efficiency improvements.  

Villas del Lago, being renamed Ernie Martin Villas: Planned improvements at Villas del Lago, being renamed Ernie Martin Villas, include upgrades to the clubhouse, a perimeter fence, gating the three entrances to the property, and the provision of a basketball court, a mini soccer field and the relocation of the tot lot and picnic area.

Mary Alice Brown: During this third quarter we completed the bridge loan financing transaction with M&T Bank for a 25MM loan. Part of the loan proceeds are being utilized to perform needed repairs and improvements to the property. 

City Terrace: During 2022, Ten North Group negotiated a Purchase and Sale Agreement for two new parcels: 141 and 201 Sharazad Blvd, totaling 55,580 sq. ft to add approximately 121 more units to the City Terrace complex in Downtown Opa-locka.

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City Terrace Downtown Planning Working Group from August 30th to September 1st, 2022:

Francisco García Iglesias, Vice Chair, ACF (Ten North’s Real Estate subsidiary)

Plusurbia Design, Juan Mullerat, Principal (and his team)

BusinessFlare, Kevin Crowcer, Founder/Owner (and his team)

The Safedesign Institute, Ken Stapleton, President

Flux Architects, Eddie Seymour, Principal & Founder

ART BASEL 2022: The Art of Transformation

This Here Place: African and the Global Diaspora, curated by Tumelo Musaka, was inspired by a quote from Toni Morrison's novel "Beloved," where Morrison describes the nightmare of slavery. The exhibition highlighted recent acquisitions from The Foundation’s collection. It included internationally renowned artists such as Abdoulaye Konate, Mali, Viye Diba, Senegal, Barthelemy Tuogo, Cameroon, Phillip Thomas, Jamaica, Mickalene Thomas, United States, and Diago Dugetry, Cuba. The physical presence of the artists added prestige to the exhibition, as many international collectors hold their works in their collections. 

 

The Beautiful Human Love

2022 also saw an innovation in our positioning of the Hurt Building as a site for acknowledging a particular African Diaspora community in our midst. This first edition presented Haiti in an exhibition built on the 1957 iconic text “La Belle Amour Humaine,” written by Haiti’s Jacques Stephen Alexis, one of the foremost Haitian writers. 

The fifty-three works exhibition, curated by Jean Jacques Alexis, was a survey of Haitian Art History through the wo/men, stylistics, and movements that have shaped the aesthetics of the great nation of the Caribbean and the African Diaspora. The participation of artists from Haiti and the Haitian Diaspora, together with the Haitian community, was a resounding success in our strategy of highlighting both the Ten North Group and the City of Opa-locka. 

Major Milestones and Accomplishments in 2022 - Acquisitions

By purchasing, collecting, exhibiting, and merchandising art, along with creating robust, high-quality arts programming, and arts residencies, the Ten North Arts Foundation seeks to play a unique role in the global art ecosystem. This will disrupt the traditional art market to force changes for the benefit of artists of color who have been marginalized for decades by the current system. 

Over the last fiscal year, Ten North Group has substantially grown its art collection. Between September 2022 and May 2023, Ten North Group has acquired over 75 works by renowned African masters whose works appear in the collections of major museums such as the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Tate in London, and the National Gallery of Jamaica, just to name a few.  Many of these masters, including, Barthélémy Toguo, Abdoulaye Konate, and Dawoud Bey, are elder statesmen who are personally revered in their home countries and abroad. Others, like Jems Ko Kobi,  Florine Demosthene, and Phillip Thomas, are enjoying tremendous popularity and growing recognition internationally.  Ten North Group is pleased to note that its 2022 acquisitions, have resulted in a collection that is truly representative of Africa and the African Diaspora, as the collection amalgamates artists from: Benin; Cameroon;  Côte d’Ivoire; Cuba; Ghana; Guinée Bissau; Haïti; Jamaica; Mali; Sénégal; Seychelles; Togo; and The United States.

The Tenth North Group activated the Ten North Arts Foundation (The Foundation) to promote African Diaspora Art by challenging traditional notions of art and beauty, racism, colonialism, and other forms of oppression and injustices.

The Foundation played a significant role in the Tenth North Group's achievements for 2022-2023. By propelling the Tenth North Group to the international level through a growing presence in major art world events and an innovative and cost-effective acquisition strategy, the Tenth North Group quickly rose to have one of its programs selected at the top level by the prestigious Art Basel Miami Beach. The Art of Transformation, the theme under which we organized the 2022 edition, welcomed over 2000 visitors and a list of the who's who in the African and African Diaspora Art world. The immersive installations, performances, and cross-cultural culinary programs added an innovative layer to the success achieved by the Ten North Group through The Foundation.

The achievements by Tenth North Group were the result of a strategy of acquisitions and sustained by a well-thought-out series of exhibitions and programs that raised the profile of the Ten North Group at the international level and doubled the holdings in our collection. Our strategy allowed us to bypass the "middlemen" -- galleries and art dealers -- to deal directly with the artists cutting, thereby, the costs of acquisition by 40% to 50%. The following are snippets of our undertakings under the leadership of the Ten North Group.   

ART PROGRAMS &

TEN NORTH ARTS FOUNDATION

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ART HIGHLIGHTS

TEN NORTH COMMUNITY FUND

In 2022, the Community Fund of North Miami Dade, now Ten North Community Fund, continued on its strong trajectory working with small businesses in South Florida, providing access to capital, and supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs of color through technical assistance and professional development.

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FAMILY SERVICES

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Ten North Group’s Family Services Department has offered clinical family services for approximately five years and has continued to increase its program capacity to provide a wide range of wraparound services to help families who are at risk. The program offers families an organized pathway, through comprehensive care coordination, to access a full range of resources and support for life success, breaking the back of generational poverty. This can only be achieved through the success of our community real-estate development projects.

In 2022, the Family Services Department continued to provide families with Care Coordination, wraparound services and youth programming for high-risk families who live in Miami Gardens, Opa-locka and North Miami. In 2022, we served more than 300 families, prevented 16 families from becoming homeless, and serviced more than 800 children. 

In partnership with the Florida Education Fund (FEF), we offered a high quality, and innovative evidence-based school year and summer enrichment program emphasizing STEM, life skills, and postsecondary and career planning for students in grades 6-12, including those with disabilities. In 2022,we provided after-school and summer programming to more than 370 students. 

Additionally, The Family Services Department increased its budget by 30% by securing two grants from the Children’s Trust – one for $650K per year for the next five years (totaling $3.250MM) and the other for $900K per year for the next five years (totalling $4.5MM). 

510 Children Served

25.5% are children with disabilities.

Served 247 open family unit cases

Participated in 4

Outreach Events

In 2 Elementary Schools across
4th and 5th grade

$19,000 in individual tutoring sessions

1,000 Hours of Tutoring

Prevented 9 families from Homelessness

Made 104 Referrals

to partner organizations for free services for clients.

16 Families Placed into Housing

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ADDITIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS​

  • In conjunction with the University of Miami, we held several Women’s Health Workshops. Participants got to engage with a U.M. doctor in a small intimate setting. 

  • Thanks to a generous donation from Publix Supermarkets, we held a School Supply Giveaway where we gave out supplies to more than 300 students, organizations and schools.

  • The Family Services Department maintains a small Food Pantry to assist clients with emergency food and personal needs.

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FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT

Although the current housing market has limited affordable homes available, in 2022, individuals continued to attend workshops to educate themselves on the homebuyer process, down payment assistance programs, and affordable developments available. Counseling the participants saw positive outcomes such as credit score increases, debt reduction and the purchase of homes by those qualified.

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OUR 2022 FUNDERS

  • Amerant Bank

  • Capital One

  • CDFI Fund

  • Formula 1®

  • Opportunity Finance Network (OFN)

  • New Horizon Bank

  • Truist Foundation

  • Santander Bank

  • HSBC Bank

  • Regions Bank

  • Banesco

  • The Children's Trust

  • The Miami Foundation

  • Miami Dade Beacon Council

  • Miami Dade County Public Schools

  • The Batchelor Foundation

  • Miami-Dade County SAS-C

  • Career Source of South Florida

  • TD Bank

  • RAZA Development Fund

  • M&T Realty Capital Corporation

  • Sun Trust

  • Comcast

  • Capital One

  • Microsoft

  • Wells Fargo

  • Miami Dade County (PHCD)

  • U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

  • Wells Fargo

  • Amerant Bank

  • JP Morgan Chase

  • 1First Bank

  • Microsoft Philanthropies

  • UnidosUS

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