By Javacia Harris Bowser
For the Birmingham Times
Thanks to the vision of Danielle Hines, a Birmingham-based lawyer, business owner and military veteran, Downtown Birmingham has a new coworking space that is both historic and future-oriented.
Hines is the creative behind CREED63, who offers established and aspiring entrepreneurs shared office space and private offices.
“CREED63 is not just for those who already have their business; It’s intended for the person who wants to start their business and has no idea where to go, ”said Hines. “If you decide to quit your job at 12 noon, you can enter our offices and get the information you need to start your business.”
While Hines hopes CREED63 at Arthur Shores Law Center in Birmingham’s historic Civil Rights District will attract business owners tired of working from home, she also wants the center to help aspiring entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life .
CREED63’s grand opening will take place on June 19, along with events by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to commemorate June 15, the day honoring the emancipation of African Americans who remained enslaved two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. The major opening events of CREED63 include a dealer market from 1:00 p.m., a press conference at 2:15 p.m. and a ribbon cutting at 3:00 p.m., followed by guided tours.
CREED63 will offer much more than just office space. By partnering with local organizations and financial services companies, the center will also serve as a hub to connect members to local business resources and small business education.
“We’ll be like a physical Google,” said Hines.
Little girls with dreams
Born in Washington, DC, Hines knew early on that she wanted to become a lawyer
“If you read my high school yearbook it said I was going to be a lawyer,” said 30-year-old Hines. “I like to argue and debate.”
Hines also has a knack for reading complicated texts and making them easy to understand to others – a skill lawyers must have. “I have a passion for it and I always have.”
Hines knew she wanted to become a lawyer, but she didn’t know how to pay for the higher education she needed to make that dream come true. Hines, who has two brothers, said her mother is a single parent and she didn’t want her mother to struggle with paying tuition fees.
“I took it upon myself to join the military,” she said. “I never went to the ROTC in high school. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just signed up because they told me the school would be free. “
But military life suited her and made her proud.
“My first real day at work was September 11th,” said Hines, who was in charge of operations support for US military jets. “I remember a sense of pride in being so young and people calling me.”
Today, Hines is an officer in the Alabama Air National Guard.
She then studied at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Florida, and moved to Birmingham in 2007 to attend Miles Law School. After graduating from law school in 2010, Hines became a trainee lawyer with Judge Helen Shores Lee, the first African American to serve in the civil division of Jefferson County’s District Court and the daughter of renowned civil rights attorney Arthur Shores.
“We had a really good relationship,” said Hines of Lee, who died in 2018 at the age of 77. “I didn’t have a family here, but she was like my mother from Birmingham.”
Hines graduated from the bar in 2011 and started her career as a lawyer, but she soon found that she had an entrepreneurial spirit too. In 2015 she founded Party Boutique Kids, a company that plans theme parties for children. In November 2016, she took second place in REV Birmingham’s Big Pitch competition and won $ 5,000 for her business.
When Hines got the opportunity to purchase the Arthur Shores Law Center, she thought beyond her own business – she envisioned a center that could enliven the community and provide office space and resources to any local business owner who needed it.
With a mortgage through a community development financial institution, she bought the entire 5,000-foot, 14,000-square-foot building for CREED63, designed to help innovators of the future while paying homage to the past. One side of the building is dedicated to lawyers and there are two retail areas.
CREED is an acronym for Community, Resources, Entrepreneurship, Education, Development, and the name was derived from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous 1963 speech “I Have a Dream” inspired. In the oft-quoted speech, King stated, “I have a dream that one day this nation will stand up and live the true meaning of its creed: ‘We take these truths for granted that all human beings are created equal.’
To validate her idea, Hines reached out to mentors like Damian Carson from Operation HOPE and Elijah Davis from Urban Impact.
“CREED63 is the tangible, triumphant testimony of the Birmingham Movement and the legacy of historic Fourth Avenue,” said Davis.
The next generation of black companies
CREED63 has the potential to create the next generation of Birmingham’s history Black Business District.
“Early-stage black companies often lack access to high-quality building inventory to generate, incubate, innovate and collaborate with,” said Davis. “CREED63 is an important addition to a longstanding need in Birmingham’s black entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
Hines honors and carries on the groundbreaking legacy of Judge Lee and helps the city as a whole, Davis said, “For the Birmingham Market, a practical space with shared resources, cultural intent and focus on empowering black founders and entrepreneurs Color is critical to the Identity, the survival and prosperity of our city. “
In addition to providing resources, programming, coworking space and private offices, CREED63 will also offer conference rooms and training rooms, a podcast recording studio, a communal kitchen with drinks and mailing services.
Hines believes her legal and military experience prepared her for the world of entrepreneurship.
“Studying law and the whole process of becoming a lawyer builds resilience,” she said, adding that you are responsible for your career advancement in the military.
“The same goes for entrepreneurship,” said Hines. “It’s easy to get a logo, set up a website, and make it look pretty, but if you don’t take the first few steps, you’ll be stuck right there.”
CREED63 is located at 1601 5th Ave. N., Birmingham, AL 35203. Opening activities are scheduled for June 19, 2021, including a press conference, ribbon cut, tours and a dealer market. Visit CREED63.com to learn more.
Like this:
Loading…
Comments are closed.