Today, we're learning about the massive capital investments heading to Detroit's East Side — specifically around Gratiot, 7 Mile, and Denby-Whittier.

To do it, Norris Howard and I sit down at our TechTown studio with Kala Gibson, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer for Fifth Third Bank.

Kala shares his personal story growing up in Detroit, how a neighborhood bank closing shaped his career, and why Fifth Third is committing hundreds of millions of dollars to housing, workforce development, and small business grants across the city.

Plus, we talk about straight-talk banking, supporting local entrepreneurs, and a little local debate over Detroit pizza and classic Coney spots.

In this episode:

  • The origin story behind Fifth Third's Neighborhood Program and the expansion from G7 (Gratiot and 7 Mile) into Denby-Whittier.
  • How $5,300 grants and low-interest loans are helping local neighborhood businesses grow without taking on massive debt.
  • Why physical bank branches and community capital are critical to rebuilding neighborhood corridors.
  • Kala's favorite homecoming food stops in Detroit (and a hot take on Coney Island spots).

As always, feedback - dailydetroit@gmail.com or leave a voicemail, 313-789-3211. And be sure to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get shows.

Episode transcription

Joining myself and Norris Howard at our TechTown studio is Kala Gibson, the Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer for Fifth Third. We've got a lot of things to talk about in Detroit and the East Side. Welcome to Daily Detroit, sir.

Kala Gibson: Hey, thanks for having me here.

Jer Staes: Glad to have you. So, there's a lot you all are up to on the East Side that I think people might not know about, and we're going to talk about that.

But for me, you know, you're somebody who's from Detroit, who's working in the Midwest doing a lot of things. Coming to Detroit, what about Detroit just makes you want to come back?

Kala Gibson: Oh, that's a great question. And it actually has to start pretty far back, when I was 12 years old.

The only thing that I've ever wanted to be since I was 12 was a banker. And there was only one bank that I wanted to work for, which was Comerica Bank. This came about because I had a paper route, and I was getting my little $35 a week. I took it to a branch that was about 200 feet from my house. When I came back the next day, there was a sign on the branch that said it was closed.

My life savings were in this branch! So I'm crying, I go home, my mom chuckles, and she takes me to her branch that's five miles away. But what I noticed was that when that branch closed, everything else in my neighborhood closed. The grocery store closed—it became a food desert and a finance desert. McDonald's closed, and McDonald's never closes, right? Everything in that neighborhood closed, and it changed over a 10-year period.

I felt that was something that I never wanted to see happen to another neighborhood. As a 12-year-old, you're like, "I'm going to make this commitment to get into banking and put myself in a position where that'll never happen again. If it does happen, I want to be in front of it to try to change that neighborhood back." That's what we're trying to do on the East Side.

Fifth Third's Investment in Gratiot & 7 Mile (G7)

Norris Howard: Right now, you are involved in the G7 neighborhood—that's Gratiot and 7 Mile—and there's a commitment you all have put up to create more improvements around that neighborhood. Explain to us a little bit about what's going on with that project in particular.

Kala Gibson: Yeah, let me start from the beginning. Back in 2018 or 2019, we put $5 million into the Strategic Neighborhood Fund, and the neighborhood that we adopted was G7. We felt like we could come in and make a difference. Over the first two to three years of that program, we started to see some change.

Then we took a step back and said, "What if we did this in nine other neighborhoods across Fifth Third's footprint?"

So then we started what we call the Neighborhood Program, where we made a commitment to nine predominantly historically African American neighborhoods to commit $20 million of capital investment over a three-and-a-half-year period.

I'm proud to say that since then, we've actually invested $400 million into these communities and have been able to catalyze another $200 million. So you're talking about $600 million that has gone into these nine neighborhoods that, for the last 50 to 60 years, had zero investment.

Jer Staes: For somebody at home, what does that capital investment look like? What does that manifest as?

Kala: For a resident living in that community, first and foremost, it's what the residents want in the community. This isn't your typical "we show up with the menu and say we only serve chicken, even though you're a vegetarian."

This actually started with asking: what do the residents want us to focus on? You hear the same things: it's about upward mobility and economic mobility. So it's about housing, small business, financial inclusion and access, and workforce development.

We've been focused on those four tenets, and then we place our focus on what the residents want. If they live in an area where housing is really needed, we're going to put a ton of our capital into housing. In the case of G7, as you all know, we need everything there. So we're going to spread the love: we're going to do housing, small business, financial inclusion and access, and workforce development.

Capital Access for Small Businesses

Norris Howard: On that tip, when we talk to a lot of our listeners, they want to move into these neighborhoods or stay in their neighborhoods. But one of the big reasons why they can't is the lack of access to capital—the lack of access to get the small business loan or the home loan. Explain a little bit of the process on how Detroiters can interface with Fifth Third and get access to some of these funds.

Kala: Let me talk about small business first. It is extremely difficult for anyone to start a small business. I have one of my own in Cincinnati, a coffee shop called Black Coffee, and it's hard to get started.

One of the things that we put together two years ago was what we call our Small Business Catalyst Fund. The Small Business Catalyst Fund provides the ability to distribute $5,300 grants to small businesses, but then also introduces them to low-dollar, low-interest-rate loans with one of our partners, CRF.

The goal is that most small businesses really only need about $5,000, and you don't want to put them in debt with that. The ability to give out these $5,300 grants is going to be transformational for these businesses, particularly in G7 and Denby-Whittier.

Jer: I've had conversations with other people involved in economic development, and there's a real gap in a lot of Detroit neighborhoods. For somebody who has a bit more access and privilege, you might be able to get $5,300 from an uncle, an aunt, a grandparent, or a brother. That's an attainable amount of money.

In a lot of these neighborhoods, because we have so much institutional decline and issues that people are dealing with, that's like a mountain.

Kala: That's right. The main thing was: how do you make this equitable? To your point, in different places—in our city and outside of our city—people have access to $5,300. When you actually give someone in these neighborhoods like G7 $5,300 for their business, that's life-changing. They don't have to pay that back, and it allows them to get that head start that they just haven't had.

It gives them hope, but most importantly, it gives them that start where now they can start building their business. Then the business becomes mainstream, and now they can qualify for your traditional bank loans. But you've got to start somewhere.

Expanding into Denby-Whittier

Jer Staes: G7 is Gratiot and 7 Mile—I'm very familiar, as some of my family is from that area. You're also going to be doing some expansion into Denby-Whittier, and I know personally there's a lot of work that needs to be done in Denby-Whittier on the East Side. What's driving the expansion, and what are your thoughts behind that?

Kala: It's a great story. When we announced the acquisition of Comerica, we had our Legal Day One back in February. We met with the Mayor—she had just been in office a couple of weeks.

Jer: Mayor Sheffield.

Kala: Mayor Sheffield. We said, "Hey, listen, we're going to double down in G7."

She said, "Hey, I need you to do something else. I need you to expand into Denby-Whittier."

For someone who's from the West Side, I hadn't been over to Denby-Whittier. I had no idea!

Norris Howard: We talk about this all the time! There are parts of the city that I know, and to me... I went over to his mom's house over the Fourth of July, and I swear it was like one of those video games where the clouds part and it's like, "I've never been here before."

Jer: Yeah, it was like the new part of the map opened up!

Norris: But we are here on Daily Detroit answering for y'all what is happening on Gratiot and 7 Mile! We are answering the question.

Jer: We literally get that question! Because people can get really frustrated. I think about residents I know in that area, and they want to turn and help be part of the solution with the city, or long-time residents want to do things. What do you have to say to them? What kind of help is coming, and what could this look like?

Kala: Particularly when you think about G7 and Denby-Whittier, these are places where people feel forgotten—that people have forgotten about them. My message to them is that you're not forgotten, and help is on the way.

Our goal, again, is to give everybody access to the American Dream. That's been missing for generations in some of our areas here in Detroit, and we want to bring that back. We want people to get access to housing, access to essential services like food, and access to the financial network. We want them to be a part of our branch that's right there in that neighborhood.

If you're not in the financial system, you have almost zero chance to experience the American Dream. You can't buy a home, you can't send your kids to college or vocational school, and you can't live your dream of maybe being an entrepreneur unless you're in that system. We want to bring that system to G7 and Denby-Whittier.

Why Banks Matter in Neighborhood Revitalization

Jer: So you really look at the bank as being a cornerstone of that. One often asks—having lived in the city a long time—where do you start? Which thread do you pull first? I always go: pull the one you can pull. But for you, the bank is the cornerstone.

Kala: I believe strong banks need strong communities, and strong communities need strong banks. There's a reciprocity that exists between banks and communities. I think it is our responsibility to help those be able to experience that dream.

You're right: where do you start? Well, I start with listening and hearing what the residents want, and then trying to deliver on that versus trying to figure out myself what they want. Everybody's different, and every neighborhood is different here in Detroit. So we start with the residents first.

Jer: What does that engagement process look like?

Kala: That engagement process typically is over a long-term period. This is where we have a head start with G7 because we've been there since 2019. They know who we are. We have established partners there, so now trust has been built. We've done a handful of projects there already.

Now it's our opportunity to put it on steroids, to catalyze more, and do more—particularly around housing and small business.

Norris: Can you give us a few examples of what you've already accomplished in those areas?

Kala: One of the things we were focused on, particularly in G7, was facade improvement and overall improvement of the neighborhood. People are proud of their neighborhoods, and you want to make sure that they can stay in place and feel proud.

So we did facade improvements and murals. We actually did a really innovative project called Mapleridge where we were renovating duplexes where you had two units—you can get rent on one floor and live in the other! That's something innovative because it gives people a chance to not only be a homeowner, but also be an entrepreneur—in the real estate game, as we used to say back in the day.

Those are just a handful of little, innovative things. Again, that was only with $5 million. Now we're talking about $20 million of equity, loans, and philanthropy. That's going to allow us to do even more.

My number one goal, which I'm going to continue to work on, is to try to get more people under the tent. How can we get other organizations, other banks, and other foundations to actually participate in this? All it's going to do is accelerate what we're going to see there.

Jer: The more partners, the more resources and things that can get done. I've seen a lot of that partnership in the city lately, and it has made a lot of progress.

Real Talk: What’s in it for the Bank?

Jer: You're from Detroit, so you know that we keep it real. When somebody's listening to this, I can hear someone in my neighborhood going, "Well, what's in it for the bank? What's in it for you in this?" People might be skeptical, right? Because when you've been dealing with so much being taken away from you, it's trauma, if we're being honest. How would you answer that question?

Kala: Like you said, I'm from Detroit and we keep it real, so I'm going to give it to you straight: we want them to be customers!

At the end of the day, the bank is a for-profit institution. The goal is that we want to develop the community, and we want people to have access to the American Dream. And yeah, we want them to get their mortgages from us, we want to do all their small business loans, and we want them to be customers of the bank.

Jer: I appreciate that! I think people in Detroit respect you a lot more for that.

Norris: We respect the straight talk! But I've got to ask an even tougher question.

Jer: Oh no.

Norris: What are y'all going to rename Comerica Park to, man? Listen, people need to know! Because there's already a Fifth Third Park. So if we have two Fifth Third Parks, they aren't going to know if it's South Carolina or somewhere!

Jer: So if it's a Fifth Third Park, it's not five letters, so it couldn't be an "Arc" or a "Park"...

Norris: Is it Fifth Third Field? You've got the alliteration going on!

Jer: I think there is a Fifth Third Field. So a fifth third of the word "Field" would be a Fifth Third Field?

Norris: Listen, if you take any suggestion, here's how you do it: Tiger Stadium, brought to you by Fifth Third Bank.

Kala: Oh, look at that! Look at that!

Norris: Cut the check, Fifth Third!

Kala: You're bringing it back to the Northwest Activity Center innovation there!

Norris: You ain't got to bring up Northwest Activity Center over here like that!

Jer: For listeners who don't know...

Norris: Full disclosure, I used to work at Northwest Activity Center, and Fifth Third Bank actually did a major renovation and opened up a mini-branch inside. I was the Chief Communications Officer at the time. They also redid the floor for the gym, which was crumbling.

So Fifth Third Bank—and I've got to give a shout-out to Bina Elliot, who was helping us at the time as well—it was a transformative project. I've seen what Fifth Third can do when they put their mind to assisting the community. I'm not just saying that to be a shill; I'm saying it because I was part of one of those projects, and it really revitalized Northwest Activity Center.

Jer: You saw it firsthand! So my personal question is this: since you grew up wanting to work for Comerica Bank, do you collect all the Comerica nostalgia? We're in the studio and I've got all kinds of old Detroit brands and stuff—a New Era Potato Chip can, old streetcar tickets, all that kind of stuff. Do you keep Comerica nostalgia? We did an episode on Vernors with a guy who has a whole basement full of Vernors signs!

Kala: It's funny, I collect everything still. I still have my 1991 ID from Comerica!

When we did the actual acquisition, I was going around with this thing that I've kept since 1991. So yeah, I still have my original pen. I'm one of those homers!

Jer: I appreciate that. That's very cool.

Kala, if people want to know more or get involved, where can they go?

Kala: We have a leader here in town, Tanya Rose, who is our Michigan leader and Community Impact Manager. All questions can go to her.

We also have information on our website if you want to see more about the Neighborhood Program. If you go out towww.53.comand visit our corporate responsibility area, you'll see more information about our Neighborhood Program and see what's coming to G7 and Denby-Whittier.

Jer: My final question is a very important question. Is it more important than the ballpark? When you come back—because you're from the city, but you're living somewhere else now—when you come back, what is the first thing you go see or eat?

Kala: Oh, that's a great question! The first thing I do—and I do this every single time—I go to Buddy's.

Norris: Really?

Kala: I go to Buddy's because Buddy's is traditional Detroit pizza. I live in Cincinnati now, and people try to do Detroit pizza there and it doesn't work.

The second place I go is to a Coney. I'll go to Leo's, National, or L. George's.

Norris: Let's go! He said L. George's!

Jer: This guy is such an L. George's fan!

Kala: I don't hear no American or Lafayette—he said the real deal! That's where you take the tourists, right? We're in the neighborhood!

Jer: I love it. Well, Kala Gibson, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer for Fifth Third, thank you so much for stopping by Daily Detroit. We appreciate you, and we will be watching the work happening at G7 and Denby-Whittier.

Kala: Thank you both for having me on. It's been great.\