Baton Rouge native helps to ‘Buy the Block Back’

25th January 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Emeka Dibia
Contributing Writer

Learning about real estate, generational wealth and the stock market doesn’t sound like the average hobbies for a 13-year-old, but for the cousin of real estate developer Anthony Kimble it’s an everyday discussion.

“He usually asks me questions about terms of [real] estate and money terms,” said Prince Jr. “About two weeks ago I had to look up Bitcoin.”

“I write research projects for my little cousin’s ‘What’s a stock? What’s an option?’“ Kimble said. “If this kid can sit there and do all this stuff on Fortnite, he can read Powernomics and understand it.”

Anthony Kimble is the founder of Kimble Properties LLC, a real estate investment and development company mainly based in Baton Rouge.

Behind each project Kimble is a part of is much more than brick and mortar. Kimble is in the business of making people better. Real estate is his tool.

“Me being from Baton Rouge coming into this neighborhood is not just about the buildings…it’s about how can we use this real estate project to rebuild people also,” Kimble said. “[It’s about] building neighborhoods that really accommodate all people. A lot of work is taking place in Old South Baton Rouge.”

One of Kimble’s biggest works is helping to change the landscape of Midtown Baton Rouge.

His 14th Street office space, once an eyesore in the area, is now home to a 6,000-square-foot shared office space with murals and artwork to symbolize and honor the past, present and future.

Kimble and his business partners, Tevin Wade and Jullien Gordon, work together on an initiative dubbed #BuyBackBatonRouge, which aims to revitalize the city’s Eddie Robinson Historic District. The district has been lacking in development for the past 50 years.

“When integration occurred, Black business could no longer survive as the community spent their money within other communities. And then Black flight followed white flight to suburbs as a sign that they were moving on up. The result is a low-income community with unoccupied historic commercial and residential properties, blighted buildings and vacant lots. On top of that, there is limited access to food, health care, quality education and jobs in this neighborhood,” according to buytheblock.com.

Kimble makes it clear that his work might be considered gentrification but that is not to be confused with pricing out people of color from the areas in which they have historically resided.

“There’s a difference between gentrification and colonization,” Kimble said. “ We don’t truly feel that all the time [it’s] gentrification at its root when it comes to uplifting the neighborhood…uplifting the people.”
Kimble says gentrification happens when businesses come into neighborhoods, buy everything up and leave people with low-paying jobs and without many options for residential living and property ownership.

The Stanford and Tulane University graduate constantly pushes to “teach the value of wealth building, property ownership, and financial literacy to individuals in the communities he grew up in, which have historically been disadvantaged.”

Kimble said he realized when he graduated from Tulane and moved back home to Baton Rouge he had to make an impact.

“I knew ownership, investing and impact was important. Initially, it was about investing and making money and then I realized ‘ok this truly can impact people,’” Kimble said.

In 2012, Kimble bought his first property at 24 years old. Now his real estate catalog has more than 40 properties spanning several states with a focus in Baton Rouge.

Kimble’s real estate group acquired $5 million in equity from its properties, mostly in South Baton Rouge, just last year.

Along with inspiring many Black and brown people in Baton Rouge he’s also inspiring his little cousin Prince Jr., who he helps take care of.

“I think I want to start my own business just like him,” said Prince Jr. “He’s driven.”

This article originally published in the January 25, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.