Wellness hub, opening in Evanston, aims to nurture small Black-owned businesses

What began as a meeting of inspired entrepreneurs has led to the opening of an ambitious Evanston commercial hub showcasing small Black-owned businesses and promoting racial equity and wellness.

Five years have passed since cousins and police sergeants Tosha Wilson and Jacqui White applied for a business loan to create The Laundry Cafe, a luxury laundromat-cafe hybrid. Despite great credit, income and assets, they were denied.

Their story sparked the genesis of The AUX, the 16,500-square-foot center at 2223 Washington St. that will have its grand opening Saturday.

The building is the site of a former vegetable-processing facility. Comfort is at the heart of the hub — couches and seating in the building’s common space are meant to welcome the community in.

Upon entering, visitors are greeted by The Laundry Cafe, the realization of Wilson and White’s original business plan. It includes a Wi-Fi-equipped cafe, tables and a couch. Customers can use large washers and dryers, or drop off their laundry.

References to Church Street and Florence Avenue, where Wilson and White grew up, can be seen throughout the space in artwork.

“That is the systemic barrier to entry that we’ve seen over and over with small black businesses,” said co-developer and wellness business coach Tiffini Holmes.

Connecting most businesses inside the hub is Sunshine Enterprises, a business academy and partner of The AUX that offers training and guidance to rising business owners in underresourced areas. Most entrepreneurs at The AUX are graduates of the program.

Once a $6 million project, The AUX has grown to an estimated $11 million, and the co-developers are still looking for donations.

“Through this overall project, I was like, ‘I guess my dream can finally come true,’ and it’s bigger,” Holmes said. “It exceeded my expectations easily, because it went from me having my business to me creating space for so many more businesses to launch, grow and expand.”

Holmes, who has been a wellness coach since 2007, is a tenant in the hub as The Aux Wellness Collective. Her space has a small private gym, a movement studio and a treatment room for massages and physical therapy.

Nine Black business owners lease space as tenants with affordable rates, Holmes said. The collective also supports subtenants, like the mental health therapist who works in Holmes’ wellness collective. And community members and groups can rent spaces for meetings, the commercial kitchen and a podcast studio.

“All of these businesses have a wellness component to them,” Holmes said. “And when we look at wellness, it’s holistic, so it’s financial, it’s emotional, it’s physical, it’s cultural, it’s social, it’s all of the things.”

Most tenants, such as Sokana Collective, a birth justice and doula academy that largely offers services for free, previously operated out of their homes.

“We’re really working on trying to combat the black maternal mortality rate,” said co-owner Sonia Collins. “So, making sure that the doulas that we put out into the area are those who are well-versed in working with marginalized populations.”

Nearby in the hub is Embrace Your Crown, a salon run by Tosha Wilson’s younger sister, Tiffany Wilson. She offers classes on how to do hair for multiracial families.

“A lot of families who are not Black are adopting Black kids. So I just want to give them a little information on how to take care of our hair. Because usually, if it’s not taken care of, we just have to cut it all off, start all over,” Tiffany Wilson said. “That’s a self-esteem journey.”

Both the Laundry Cafe and Embrace Your Crown are the epitome of a type of wellness that is important at The AUX, said Holmes.

“Especially for school-age kids, when your clothes are dirty, when your hair isn’t done, that can start this trickle and sometimes a flood of bullying, absenteeism and all this other kind of stuff,” said Holmes. “So once again, wellness comes into play. … You’re building self-esteem.”

The hub is also about bringing people together, said Tosha Wilson, and the name reflects the goal of connection.

“I was in the car with a friend, and I asked, ‘What connects Black people? How do we connect?’ She said, ‘music,’” said Tosha Wilson. “And she actually had an aux cord in her car. … So this is the place to plug in.”