We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tron Banks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tron , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

The idea of starting a market came from the need for start-up business owners to perfect the business model and gain customers. It all started with the Pittsburgh Yards Community development meetings. The developers had community members split up into break out groups that evolved around what the culture of the space would look like. There was a group that focused on branding the site, construction, art, preserving the history of the neighborhood, and also a farmers market group. Our initial group was intended to be a farmers market until we realized one big problem. We had no farmers! We pivoted from farming and would later return to the idea. We concentrated on what was already in the area, and that was a heavy maker population. A Maker being someone who made their own products. We held meetings for a year in throughout 2019 and were poised to start our market in 2020. Covid-19 put those plans at a stand still for nearly a year. 3 people from the original 30 person planning group stayed active during the pandemic and started the inaugural year of the market in 2021. We quickly realized things were not back to normal and we struggled through our first year to gain any traffic. By the end of the year one we found out the importance of partnerships and themed events. One of our first partnerships was with The National Black Arts Festival. We put together a 3 part Elements of Hip Hop Experience that started in Q1 2022. The idea is to use these events to collect date, gamer more partnerships, and gain more interest and participation in our markets. This year has been a complete 180 from the previous one. More and more partnerships were formed and by April 22′ we almost had a calendar full of events. We have recently came back to the idea of adding the farmer element to the market. We’ve connected with a local farm South of Atlanta as well as a few black farmers in Tuskeegee. The end goal is to create a network of Black Farmers and Makers. Adding a brick and mortar store and mobile aspect of our market is a goal we want to accomplish in the next year to two years.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a Georgia State University Alumni. I graduated from the first class of the College of the Arts. My minor was real estate. It was during my junior year in school that I learned about the Atlanta Beltline project. For those that don’t know the Atlanta Beltline was the master’s thesis of a Georgia Tech graduate that has turned into the second largest real estate redevelopment project in the nation. By the time I took my 3rd real estate class which was Real Estate and Mortgage Financing I knew that the affordability that Atlanta has enjoyed was about to change. Realizing this was a call to action and doing my due diligence I ended up being connected with the Annie E. Casey Foundation who are the owners of a 30 acre tract of land that is now Pittsburgh Yards. Pittsburgh Yards was build to be the jobs engine for the Atlanta Beltline. So the main issue was preparing the small businesses and potential entrepreneurs for the historic amount of development coming to the area. Being prepared and operating at a high level means as small business we will have agency and a seat at the table. One of the main things I want people to take away from our work is our communities do have the power to shape our neighborhoods. Black and brown communities do have the right to have a say so in what entities can invest in the place they call home.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

One of my business partners is my wife. She’s always supported me and gave her input on how the market should be shaped. She was there from the beginning and saw how impactful this work could be. The markets other Co-Director is Makeisha who was also there from the incept of the market working groups. We all line in Southwest Atlanta and we all want to see our neighborhoods be destination spaces in the city like other areas, but we want to control the narrative.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We all had to pivot during Covid-19. We all went from being a part of starting a market to the leaders of this market and leaders in the community. We learned to lean on each other more as founding members and support each other thru the hard times. Before that we had to pivot when it came to what the community is ready for. We realize there are still certain elements in the black community that have plagued us for decades. There are people in our communities that can’t afford anything anyone is selling at our market. Does that mean you turn them away. We found ways to help those in need.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pittsburghcommunitymarket.com
• Instagram: @pittsburghcommunitymarket
• Facebook: Pittsburgh Community Market

Image Credits
Shawanda Banks