By Dan Wallach, The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Feb. 19--BEAUMONT, Texas--Jeffrey Gardner and James Locke had a dream and now are making it a reality.
By the middle of March, the partners plan to open their combination Pizza Pro-Subway sandwich-Blue Bell ice cream store at 1175 Washington Blvd.
The partners hope their venture will accomplish at least three major goals.
First, they want to show investment in the African-American community is not only possible, but could help people to start building wealth in an area outside of the West End.
Second, they want the new business to become the first of many in Southeast Texas built on their Pizza Pro franchise, which is based in Arkansas.
Third, they want to set an example as mentors for young people of any race that building a business is possible.
'We have so many athletes that young people look up to,' Gardner said. 'But we want to show what you can accomplish if you work hard. Anybody can reasonably do it. It's not a difficult feat.'
The three major U.S. sports leagues employ about 3,200 highly paid athletes. The chance for a career in the pros is more than remote.
But the chance to become something like a 'Pizza Pro' is much more realistic, Gardner and Locke said.
Gardner, 32, and Locke, who says he is a 'younger 32,' have planned the business for the past nine months, but their association dates to childhood, they said.
'We're all a product of our environment,' Locke said.
'We've always tried to surround ourselves with people like us the same vision, the same goals, the same aspirations. We're going to have to make a living one day.'
Gardner said something similar and sinister revolves around the drug culture.
Referring to an example of how people get caught up in activities that can destroy their futures, he said: 'If someone I know is selling drugs, I might buy them, or I might sell them.'
Locke said a business could help people unlock their creativity in a positive manner.
'If people used their creativity more, the crime rate would go down. You've got to make up your mind, find a concept and go forward,' he said.
'I don't know any drug dealer who sells drugs for 25 years and retires peacefully. It just doesn't happen.'
Gardner and Locke decided early on to take the long view, which they said requires discipline, particularly when it came to financing their venture.
'We saved every nickel,' Locke said.
'We had to make sacrifices,' said Gardner, whose father, George, has developed the Subway sandwich store franchises in Southeast Texas.
'My dad didn't give us anything in this deal,' Gardner said.
And then they had to assemble their business plan and approach lending institutions to arrange for financing.
In all, their business will have cost perhaps $350,000 to build and launch.
Community Bank & Trust backed them, but they were turned down by a couple of other local lenders.
'They (other banks) still don't want to deal with minorities,' Gardner said. 'We just want to be treated equally. We needed a couple of hundred thousand to do the project. Some wouldn't even call back. Very unprofessional. They wouldn't even look at our financials.'
Locke said they were very prepared before they applied for a loan.
'If we didn't get it, we wanted to know why so we could fix it,' he said.
Locke also brought to the table his general contracting company, Premier Custom Homes and Development.
'I've always enjoyed designing,' he said. 'Six years ago, I wanted to build a house. So I designed it and hired subcontractors.'
Locke's company is acting as general contractor for the Pizza Pro-Subway construction, which will be the first freestanding store in the region.
There also are Pizza Pro shops in Port Arthur and Beaumont as part of other stores.
Their building is up and the interior work is well under way.
The project restored a productive land use to a previously vacant lot that beforehand had been a small apartment complex that had burned, they said.
The new construction also serves as proof that investment in the south end of Beaumont is a good thing, they said.
'When you spend money in the West End, it stays in the West End. It doesn't help this community,' Gardner said. 'What we want to do is create a business, provide employment, and circulate these dollars back in this community. That's the only way to build wealth.'
Dowlen Road has been the scene of Beaumont's largest commercial and residential construction in the past few years.
The partners said they understood profits earned by national chains in the West End leave the community, but also point to local stores that have built new branches along Dowlen Road.
Meanwhile, investments in the south part of the city are few and far between.
Locke and Gardner expect to employ about 25 people in the new store, which will be open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
They expect the people they employ to use their creativity on the job, also.
'I started out putting lettuce and pickles on a sandwich,' Gardner said. 'But I wanted something bigger. Just because you're browning a pizza doesn't mean that that's the ceiling.'
Neither Locke nor Gardner sympathize with the excuse that people have to leave Beaumont to find work.
'You can't say there are no jobs here, so I'll be a miserable failure,' Gardner said. 'So, you create one. That is the entrepreneurial spirit. Mentally, you've got to have the mindset to overcome barriers and obstacles. We've had obstacles, but it hasn't deterred us.'
Locke said both he and Gardner are parents and they want their children to see their own possibilities in the examples their fathers set.
'They'll be products of their environment,' he said.
To see more of The Beaumont Enterprise, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.southeasttexaslive.com
(c) 2003, The Beaumont Enterprise. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
