Transcript: Mayor Adams Announces New $25 Million Space To Help Launch And Grow BIPOC, Woman-Owned, Other Health And Beauty Businesses At Brooklyn Navy Yard

March 7, 2024

Lindsay Greene, President & CEO, Brooklyn Navy Yard: Good morning, everybody. Happy Thursday. I need that again. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. 

There we go. There's that Brooklyn energy. I wasn't born here so I can't claim it, but I've been here for a long time and I know Brooklyn always brings the best. So, thank you for coming here to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

We're really excited today to announce a game‑changing project that is sure to bring a new wave of energy and production to our campus. It's something we've been working on for a long time and is only made possible due to years of support and intentional investment and sweat equity by so many of our colleagues and so many of you in this room. So, thank you for being here.

And you know, I want to give a special thanks to a lot of my colleagues in city government, obviously, to the mayor and Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer, Commissioner Kim, other folks across the city who've really partnered with us to really create this powerful opportunity.

It's really going to bolster New York's reputation as a place where manufacturing can and does happen in real life. It's modern, it's inclusive and it's going to bring a lot of economic opportunity to the borough and to the city.

And chief among the tireless advocates and public servants who've helped this project come to life is our next speaker. To his credit, he was and remains a trailblazer. He saw the potential in this project when he was borough president. Please join me in welcoming our amazing and talented mayor, Brooklyn Zone, The Honorable Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, Lindsay, and it is really challenging to say beauty without our two assemblywomen and our councilperson, come on up here and join us to show us that politics also shows beauty as well. Come on and be a part of this.
We've known for a long time from the days of being a kid, flipping through my sister's Essence magazine, how much of women of color in general but specifically Black women, they have spent so much of their resources and economics into beauty supplies.

But in the beauty industry, there's an ugly reality and truth: we buy the products, but there's no support for us to produce the product and to share the wealth of this multi‑billion dollar industry. That ends today. That ends today. 

We want to be extremely clear right here in the Navy Yard where they build ships of the past, we want build real businesses that will have advancement and economic opportunities for women of color in general, but specifically Black women. And I just want to really thank my sister Lindsay Greene, job well done, job well done… taking on these bold initiatives and what she's doing. And we came into office with a clear vision: everything from public safety, revitalizing our economy and just making the city more livable for everyone, leaving no one behind, something that has often been overlooked in the past. We are reaching into the crevices of this city and say, how do we bring everyone along. 

As borough president, I invested a million dollars into the initiatives here in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and we're going to continue to make sure we get a return on our investments in a real way.

Today's announcement builds on that mission by investing in the jobs of tomorrow starting today. Our administration believes we have a role in helping small businesses. Commissioner Kim, where's the commissioner? He's around. He's up here.

Commissioner Kim has been just so dogmatic about how do we go after small, women, minority‑owned businesses in a real way. Give it up for the commissioner. Thank you.

We've been moving around the city together. And so today, I'm proud to announce especially during Women's History Month that R.F. Wilkins Consultants, a Black women owned and run firm, is seeing their dream come to life.

R.F. Wilkins will develop and operate AYO labs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She just shared with me named after her dad. You know, once you are a daddy's girl, you remain a daddy's girl. You know, this is so important. This is a $25 million state of the art facility coming to the heart of Brooklyn.

The labs will help small businesses, including many that are Black, indigenous and people of color and women‑owned wellness and beauty businesses launch and grow in the City of New York. This is so much connected to our women agenda as we deal with health and wellness among our female population in this city. This project is expected to create over 900 direct and indirect jobs in the first five years in a sector… And this number is so significant, a $450 billion sector. It is just real. You know, this morning I thought about this when I read we were doing this, when I put on my shea butter, I said, who made this?

You know, like, who is actually making the money? We need to start connecting the dots. You would think when you hit, look at some of these products, that the foundation of it is coming from people of colors who are the producers, but far too often they're not. And that is what this initiative is about, and I know that I had it right back then and we believe we have it now.

This industry is booming through serving Black and Brown people, but the wealth is not coming into the hands of Black and Brown people. Only 2.5 percent of the revenue can be linked to Black founded or owned beauty companies despite Black consumers making up 11 percent of spending.

Today, New York City is taking a stand, putting money back in the pockets of Black and Brown entrepreneurs, especially women of color. Our investment in this important initiative here in the Brooklyn Navy Yard would help women of color and Black entrepreneurs and others into the beauty market develop and scale up their brands.

That board over there to the left rarely shows you how much you're going to get the wraparound support. How do you take it from your kitchen countertop to you opening a top entrepreneurial business here with the support that you need, the infrastructures you need, access to capital that you need, technical knowledge that you need? It is so challenging of not knowing where to go to get that support that you need to take your ideal and make it real.

Phase one of this project will create 26,000 square foot manufacturing space that will support over 100 entrepreneurs annually. Phase two, [we'll] bring in additional 14,000 square feet of manufacturing space online. This is some good stuff, folks.
This lab will have everything a small business needs to flourish from back office support to world‑class instructors, hands‑on training, technical assistance, mentorship, networking opportunities and access to capital as I indicated. And if you want to learn more, please go to ayolabs.com.

And when we build just a equitable city is our goal, we want to make sure that Black entrepreneurs and women‑owned businesses have an opportunity to flourish and grow and enjoy the prosperity of this amazing city. This is how you lead the nation in emerging industries. Create opportunities for generational wealth in Black and Brown communities and kickstart our economy. Something that Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi has been really focused on.

When you look at, we have more private sector jobs in the history of this city is in the City of New York, but we want to make sure that not only do we have high numbers, but we want to be equitable in those numbers that we receive.

And this is another part of our blueprint as we move forward as one city and ensure that everyone enjoys the prosperity that comes with being in the greatest city on the globe, and that is New York City. Thank you very much. Congratulations to all.

Greene: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We appreciate your support for your endeavors at the Navy Yard always. This man is always a trailblazer. He's often our first anchor capital when he's borough president for our boldest ideas. So, thank you for that, sir.

I'm so proud to have the privilege to be helping shape the next chapter of things here at the Brooklyn Navy Yard since the mayor appointed me in 2022. If you know about our 200‑year‑old history, you understand the great responsibility that I feel that I've been charged with, both for the Borough of Brooklyn and the great City of New York.

The Navy Yard has always been a center of innovation and a center of inclusivity, dating back to its peak employment time during World War II. Not only was it the place where we had groundbreaking naval technologies and groundbreaking strategies that helped us win the war, but it was also a place where the Navy helped turn economic tides for the people of Brooklyn, particularly for women and for people of color.

I just want to highlight a couple points about women. There were over 7,000 women that worked here in typically male‑oriented jobs. You had the riveters, you had folks doing things on the ships, you had welders. They had some of the toughest industrial jobs in the city and they rose to the challenge and they made the Navy artist, nickname was the The Can‑Do Shipyard in the nation.

And that spirit remains alive and well today and it's at the crux of what we do every day and it's really at the crux of this project. You'll hear from Francilia in a minute, if there's anyone who embodies a can‑do spirit, that's the energy she wakes up with every day.

And our success is so directly tied to having so many diverse and women‑led businesses at the Navy and at the city and in modern manufacturing— which is true to the energy of what we do— we need more that diversity. And it's a key piece of why we invested in this project and why we've been working on it for so many years, because we have 550‑plus businesses that are here, but it's not as many people of color and women as we'd like, and this project will help us turn that tide and it's really critical for us.

So, AYO labs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, as the mayor said, it's going to bring contract manufacturing to one of the biggest industries in the world, beauty and health and wellness. And it's going to do that with a focus on supporting entrepreneurs that are Black, indigenous and persons of color and women and really bring that diversity to an ecosystem and let folks take their idea from a napkin sketch to a store shelf.

That's what all the companies here do at the Navy Yard and that's what our incubators do and it's so much harder to do that when you're making a physical product day‑in and day‑out and that's what the supports will provide.

And so I just want to just highlight how important that is and how important it is to create a space where everybody who has felt like maybe they don't fit in, they don't see themselves here, they don't know if their idea matters or their product matters in the world, it's a $450 billion industry, you can take your idea.

It does matter. You can be successful. You can be a CEO, you can be an entrepreneur and you can see your product on a store shelf one day and be proud that you're changing somebody's life for their personal care.

And so we hope to bring that to as many people as possible. and AYO Labs is going to help us do that. It's core to what the mayor has charged me to do. It's central to our mission at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. We spur economic growth, we really focus on economic mobility and we use our assets and our space to do that.

This floor that you're sitting in will be that 26,000 square foot manufacturing facility. It's a momentous milestone and the start of an exciting chapter for us and for this new endeavor. And I'm just so pleased to be here. It is one of my proudest moments so far, so thank you all for celebrating with us.

I want to, with that, introduce Mr. Walter Edwards, a leader in our community in New York, who's been a mentor of Francilia.

I admire his work at Full Spectrum when I was a young real estate analyst in my early careers and he's been a pillar of our Black business community for over 30 years. He's the son of Harlem and a great day has come to pass for Brooklyn. So, thank you, sir, for being here. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Edwards.

Walter Edwards: Peace and blessings be to all. My name is Walter Edwards. I am the chairman of the Harlem Business Alliance and CEO of Full Spectrum Building and Development, Inc.

I'm sorry that I'm a little late and rushed this morning out of breath trying to get here through these floods and all with the rain, but I'm here, thank you, and I'm blessed to be here.

I congratulate the mayor and his team for pulling this together. I'm thankful to Allah that we all are here in time to do what is need to be done. I am, of course, the descendant of former slaves, and I've been in the construction industry business for over 50 years.

I've seen the challenges and [all], so I know what this young company has to go through to succeed. And I'm very pleased to say— and I'm trying to read something that I can hardly see, so please forgive me. Oh boy, it is all going against me this morning.
Mr. Mayor, you know how to do this to me. I can't blame anyone, but you. So, I thank Allah for us being able to do it and I'm going to try to wing this if you don't mind. I know you guys approved the speech...

I'm going to wing it as far as I can. Thank you. As the person that has met the challenges for all these years and have grown and fell back and grown again, I have witnessed in this capitalist society what it take for us to move up a step at a time, because that's all that you're going to be able to do. You're not going to leapfrog anything. You're going to just step up and move slowly if you're careful.

So, this company, AYO, and its founder, I have watched and spoken to day‑in and day‑out wherever I could to help them. And I'm so happy that she's been able to be a Black woman coming in here as young as she is and achieving what she is achieving.
And I know that she has the feeling of helping the community. She gives back. So, she's not going to take it and run and put it all in her pocket and forget about it. everybody else. She's going to carry people with her.

So, you know, I'm not going to hold you all up. I know you've been here. I'm just going to introduce this fabulous lady and her company, because she has done some wonders. And it is my privilege to present her with her generational wealth partner, as I call it. Okay? Ms. Francilia Wilkins Rahim.

Francilia Wilkins Rahim, Chief Executive Officer, Owner at R.F. Wilkins Consultants, Inc: Whoo! Good morning.

Audience: Good morning.

Rahim: Wow, Good morning, everyone. Now, this is, it's truly a dream come true. I stand here literally in a space of gratitude, and I want to thank you, Mayor Eric Adams, Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer, Lindsay Greene, commissioner, all of you, thank you for sharing this moment, this day with me. My sincerest thanks to my mentor and friend Walter Edwards, thank you for this, and [Ms. Patience Amenekee].

There's a lot of thanks in this, but I promise I won't keep you too long. Thank you to all of you who left your homes this morning. You tackled the rain, you tackled the NYC traffic, but by all means necessary, you showed up. And you have my word and commitment to all of you today that I will show up.

So, before we get to the reason why we are all here today, let me provide a quick answer to the question that is the elephant in the room in everyone's mind, is she as pregnant as she looks? The answer is yes, eight and a half months, to be exact.
So, baby Rahim and I have spent the last few months raising about $15 million for this project; and, at the same time, driving R.F. Wilkins Consultants to its highest revenue to date.

But you know what? Beyonce said it best, strong enough to bear the children and then get back to business. Because who runs the world?

Audience: Girls!

Rahim: All right.

Thank you, DJ. Thank you.

So, today I speak to the entrepreneurs in the room. I speak to all of you with the dream. I want to talk about this lingering question that we all experience. Why? Why me? Why now? Why this? 

Entrepreneurs, when that voice in your head is screaming, why me? I want you to remember this story, my story, which represents parts of every single one of you that's sharing this space with me today. 

13 years ago, at the young age of 23, I took the biggest leap of faith in my life. Today we're together to see the fruits of this dream deferred come true. In 1990, my family landed at JFK Airport. My mother [Rudine Wilkins], my heart, my sunlight, who's sitting here in the front row. 

She was the former assistant minister of agriculture for the country of Liberia. And my father, Jerry Wilkins, lovingly known as Ayo, was a petroleum geologist. They literally landed here, war stricken, broken with nothing but the clothes on their backs and determination to survive. 

The story that followed me at every single graduation— I'm talking about middle school, college, grad school— was the story of me having to run through dead bodies at three years old and my mother saying, just keep going, just sing and push through. 
We got through and we ended up right here in Brooklyn, Vanderveer Projects in a two‑bedroom apartment in Flatbush, with 12 other cousins, uncles, aunts, and that became my first home. 

My parents worked hard, and we ended up leaving New York, but promptly, of course, like any true New Yorker at heart, 15 years later, I came back to start my freshman year at St. John's University. 

St. John's in the room? I did everything right. I graduated cum laude. I had the best internships. But by the time I graduated into 2009, I landed into one of the worst recessions this nation has ever seen and ended back in grad school. 

I felt like Kanye West. You all know the graduation album? I was broke. I had no money, I had no resources, I had no relationships. But I started to tell everyone that I was an independent business development consultant. I had Googled this. So, when people would ask me, I would say, yes, I am an independent business development consultant. 

Well, let me tell you all, you're witnessing the story of how that ended up. Literally 13 years later, my first firm, R.F. Wilkins Consultants, is now in the .1 percent of African American women‑owned firms in the nation.

We have been working and are committed in every single thing that we do, in creating economic access and opportunities for diverse entrepreneurs and communities. We work on projects like the 20 billion redevelopment of JFK, where we ensure compliance and participation. 

We've worked with entities like LISC to develop their Developers of Color Program, with Google to support their Google Digital Coaches Initiative. And every single thing we do is to create economic access and opportunity. 

So, entrepreneurs, when that little voice in your hair comes up and ask, why you? Why do I have to go through all of this uncertainty? When it asks, why you? Why me? I want you to know why not. 

You have to go through the uncertainty, the loss, the lack of capital, the failure and answer yourself, if not me, who? Walk in your purpose, speak with intention, stay ready so you don't have to get ready to answer the call. 

Why now? Almost three years ago, Brooklyn Navy Yard released an RFP. The goal was to create more economic access for Black and Brown firms at the yard. It proceeded, it followed a period when the entire nation was in a chokehold, a watershed moment, when we were all forced to acknowledge the inequities, lack of access, lack of resources that represented the reality of daily life as a Black American. 

R.F. Wilkins Consultants was one of 30 firms that bidded for this opportunity. And after being in business for so many years, I was not interested in seeing another technical assistance program. I was tired of hearing Black businesses didn't exist, I was tired of hearing that we don't have the capacity to work. 

Because of leaders like Walter Edwards and members of the Black Business Collaborative, I overstood the only way we would scale and thrive as Black and Brown communities is if we had access to contracts, if we had access to capital. 

See, when Black and Brown businesses have access to contracts and capital, we create access for our communities. We create access for the New York economy. We create access for our families, for our schools, for the children that we serve. Contracts, government contracts, represent the driver of wealth across the nation. 

So, entrepreneurs, when that little voice in your head asks you, why not? Why now? If not now, when? When the little voice in your hair asks you why this? I want you to look around. You all are not even in half of this space. AYO Labs is representing an economic hub for innovation. 

Across what will be a total of almost 40,000 square feet here at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, we will be building the nation's largest contract manufacturing facility anchored in a health and beauty incubator and accelerator to help and support Black and Brown and women‑owned businesses scale. 

We will be providing access to not only technical assistance and training, but capital and the markets and state of the art manufacturing so those of you who are in your kitchen making shea butter in your home, making beard cream— we all know somebody— you'll have the tools and resources to scale and expand. 

We will be working with some of the greatest, largest health and beauties companies in the nation and creating a space where everyone can manufacture, because don't get it twisted. This isn't a nonprofit project, all right? We know we live in a capitalistic society. 

But we are taking the funds and money that we are making and reinvesting it back into our community, because that is the way.

That is the way to create scale. So, everyone in this room, the entrepreneurs and everyone sitting here, if you are asking why this, I'm going to ask you, if not this, what else?

I want to, before I leave you today, give thank you. Thank you to the people who stood by me and stand with me. Thank you to those of you who said yes when so many have and continue to say no.

For those of us in the beginning of this journey, believing is your first step. Do not, do not give up. So, bear with me as I deliver some quick roses and I promise you you'll be able to mix and mingle and do all the fun things.

To my mother, [Rudine Francilia Wilkins], you are a queen. You're my hero. You are sunlight embodied. You have given up everything to ensure that I have everything. Thank you.

My husband, [Hakeem Rahim], is my rock. He stands by me through every single crazy entrepreneurial psycho thing that I am doing and he doesn't complain. He supports. He keeps me strong. He motivates me. Thank you, [Hakeem].

Mayor Eric Adams, I'll tell you, you may not know, but your money was the first money in this deal. That million‑plus that you invested is what made this dream deferred become a reality. Thank you for your commitment. 

To the Woman caucus, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Leader Farah Louis, I want to tell you, you know, Farah, when I came initially and I was telling people how exciting this idea would be, and you know, the great thing everyone should invest in, so many people were like, no, not interested. You can't do this. It's not going to work. 

And Farah, you said, yes. Thank you for bringing the Women's caucus along.

Lindsay Greene. Okay? It is not lost on me. The risk that you are taking as an African American woman leader of one of the biggest economic development hubs in this nation and investing in this project, thank you for your commitment.
There's no one else more important than this group here. You have some of us standing behind me, the R.F. Wilkins Consultants and AYO labs team.

Man, when I tell you these people, they're the real ones who run the show. They make it happen. I can't name everyone, but from Adam Knotts… my COO at R.F. Wilkins, [Robert Skillicorn], [Dwayne Jeffery], [Jackie Deldios], [Moomy O'Neil], [Diana Halaya], [Gio Eretta], [Ivan Bolchankov]. Who else is here with me today? We have the whole team, [Akira]. I can't turn around and see everyone. I want to just go ahead and thank all of you, [Woomy], [Jamila, Melody], thank you guys.

When RFW started, it was a one‑person entrepreneurial shop. Today just at RFW, we have over 30 employees, at AYO, we have a number of employees. And we are [Louise] the United Nations, standing behind me, trust and believe. The construction and architectural team, McKissack & McKissack, Jaklitsch and Gardner, Mark Gardner, 397 Architects, Samantha, thank you for the dynamic work. 

Our legal team, Butler Snow, Ashley Wicks, I want to thank you for all of the work that you're doing. [Brian Wostein], Kim, [Macklow and Leland Mack], our Lender Street. Lender Street, our lenders. Lender Street is a lender who was able to put $4 million to make this deal work. Thank you. 

All of the Brooklyn Navy Yard staff from Andrew to [Banga] to Stephanie to Ethan, you guys are epic. Thank you. Our strategist, Ms. Jackie Williams with 99 Solutions. Thank you for being a sister and a friend and keeping me in check when I need to be.
Our lobbyist, [Juanita Scarlet] and the [Bolton St. John's] team, you have stuck through and I appreciate [Peter Fazow], [Ferzan and Ferzan] Company were one of our first teams, architectural teams, to come on board and support this project.

All of the architectural group working under McKissack & McKissack. My mentor who has put her money where her mouth is, who has been a supporter from day one when I had nothing Ms. [Patience Zemenekee], thank you for believing in me from the beginning.

And every single other person who has supported, continues to support, puts dollars in, I have some of my business partners in this room, [Doonio] and Andrew, thank you for all the support that you guys bring. 

Last but not least, I want to thank my father, [Jerry Iver Wilkins], lovely known as Ayo. My father unexpectedly passed away in 2020. He was one of my biggest fans. Daddy, your legacy will continue. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

Finally, before I leave here, I want to speak to the entire room. We have raised a lot of funds for this project, for Phase one. Phase two is still on the table. I do not want this to be just another check in the box. We are not there yet. We are not finished. We need your support. 

If you are an investor in this room, talk to your banks, talk to your equity partners, we want you to participate in creating economic access and opportunities for diverse businesses throughout New York. 

We want you. We need you. Be a part of this moment. Be a part of this economic hub. Be a part of this change. AYO Labs is my why. My why me, my now. It is a dream deferred. Today, it becomes a dream come true. Thank you so much. 

Greene: Thank you. Thank you, Francilia, congratulations. If you couldn't tell, she puts her heart into this project every day, all hours of the day. Baby Rahim too. Welcome officially to the Brooklyn Navy Yard family. We are pleased to have you. 

I want to thank all of you again for being here to celebrate with us and commemorate this special moment. There's obviously reception and mingling to do and I'll invite the mayor up and we can take any questions. Thank you, all. 

Question: Mr. Mayor. 

Mayor Adams: Yes. 

Question: ...$25 million. [Inaudible] being allocate is that city dollars or that [inaudible]? 

Mayor Adams: You want to do that? Who do you want to, go ahead, Liz.

Greene: So, there is a fraction of city capital dollars that are in the construction of this first phase, and that was all allocated by the mayor when he was borough president and by the women's caucus from the City Council. And the rest is privately raised through Francilia's hard work.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. How are you doing. 

Mayor Adams: How are you? 

Question: Good. 

Mayor Adams: Good, good. Make sure you buy some of the products. 

Question: [Inaudible.] 

Mayor Adams: Sounds like a plan. 

Question: My question is, how many entrepreneurs will serve for the project, and then how are they chosen amongst all the others? 

Rahim: Absolutely. So, we expect to serve over a hundred entrepreneurs per year. We will have an open application process each year, 25‑person cohorts, four per year. If you go to ayolabs.com now, you'll see an initial form. We're not opening the application fully for another two to three months. 

During construction, we plan to have a virtual and some in‑person incubation and acceleration courses. And that is what we're going to keep pumping the engine with. So, it's going to be a cycling opportunity of 90‑day with cohorts for various entrepreneurs to come through an application process. Thank you. 

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