Photo source: Black Cultural Zone Website. Since its founding in 2019, Black Cultural Zone has grown from a coalition of four East Oakland organizations into a collaborative of more than 100 community organizations sharing a vision of creating a vibrant cultural hub of Black businesses and thriving people.
About Black Cultural Zone
In 2019, four organizations came together to respond to widespread disinvestment and historical displacement of the Black community and businesses in East Oakland. That collaborative, which now includes more than 100 community organizations, formed Black Cultural Zone (BCZ), to champion Black arts, culture, and business. BCZ is working to revitalize a 60-by-60 block Zone, stretching from High Street to the San Leandro border, to support Black businesses, culture, and people.
Part of this revitalization includes acquiring and developing spaces through its nonprofit developer, BCZ’s Community Development Corporation (CDC). The Black Cultural Zone CDC is building a model of community investment and cooperative ownership, in which residents participate in planning, rather than watching BCZ manage assets on their behalf. BCZ also hires intentionally, bringing on community members as contractors, electricians, and safety ambassadors.
BCZ Deputy CEO of Real Estate Regina Davis focuses on creating a lasting foothold for Black culture, businesses, and residents in East Oakland, rather than developing for short-term profit.
Housing Trust’s $50,000 Grant Boosts BCZ Capacity
Black Cultural Zone examines long-term impact and development rather than short-term profit.
Housing Trust’s Capital for Capacity grant program provides community-based developers up to $50,000 to strengthen internal systems, unlock additional capital, and expand their impact. Housing Trust awarded BCZ one of its inaugural grants, which has allowed BCZ to automate workflows and data management that cut administrative time by 25 percent, and it funded a technical project manager to support development work.
“These funds literally allow us to take a look at this infrastructure financing and figure out how we navigate it without putting our own free and clear properties at risk, which we are not going to do,” said Carolyn Johnson, BCZ’s Executive Director and founding CEO.
Building What’s Next!
Photo source: Black Cultural Zone Website. With 10 affordable housing and community engagement projects across East Oakland, Black Cultural Zone will continue deepening their impact as a Capital for Capacity inaugural grantee.
The Capital for Capacity grant allows BCZ to move toward owning, not renting, the buildings it develops, which is key to combating displacement.
BCZ’s recent project at MacArthur and 82nd Avenue is an example of this work. The site, which BCZ intends to develop into housing, was a $1.2 million Alameda County property that sat empty for a decade and carried $1.7 million in tax debt. BCZ was able to buy the property for $10 through a rarely used tax transfer mechanism that allows public agencies to forgive existing debt and hand off land at a low cost so long as the buyer commits to using it for public good.
The Residences at Liberation Park will house 119 families, individuals with disabilities and special needs, in-home artists, entrepreneurial businesses, and a family childcare business.
The organization’s other project at Liberation Park offers further evidence that BCZ’s model of community ownership works. The site was an abandoned 54,000-square-foot site, that is now slated to become a three-story Market Hall and Cultural Hub, featuring a food hall, cultural center, outdoor skating rink, and support for local businesses and artists. Before breaking ground on the building, BCZ activated it with food distributions, movie nights, and California’s only outdoor wood-floor roller skating rink.
In October 2026, the Black Cultural Zone Community Development Corporation, with additional investment from Housing Trust, will start construction on The Residences at Liberation Park—a 119-unit affordable housing development adjacent to the Black Cultural Zone Marketplace and Hub.
Building on the success of its developments at MacArthur and Liberation Park, BCZ has plans for 10 additional sites across East Oakland.
To learn more about Housing Trust’s Capital for Capacity Program, visit https://housingtrustsv.org/housing-trust-launches-capital-for-capacity-grant-program/.
Source: Black Cultural Zone and Housing Trust