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Local Owner Wants to Grow Black-Owned Businesses Downtown The Brand Looking To Revitalize Downtown Syracuse

By Anthony Tartaglione

ANTHONY TARTAGLIONE: As cars whistle down Salina Street in downtown Syracuse, some stop into ECODESSA, An women’s ecomerece retail company that has a brick and mortar store in the city which its background illuminates entrepreneurship and environmentalism. Their inventory ranges from clothing items to home essentials. Owner and Creator of Ecodessa Caeresa Richardson says the idea for the brand comes from her own stylistic needs.

CAERESA RICHARDSON: It really all started with me actually, I wanted to shop in my values and it turns out that the ethical fashion industry in general is a growing industry.

TARTAGLIONE: Richardson’s story began before becoming a business owner, she was A Syracuse University graduate turned engineer and used those skills to facilitate the brand.

RICHARDSON: Data analytics is a huge part of my day to day as the CEO. Business development and marketing is another large part of it and I learned a lot of that as an engineer managing products.

TARTAGLIONE: Richardson’s impact as an owner has resonated to many across the community. ECODESSA Employee Arianna Masse has been with the company for 2 years and gives insight as to why Richardson is effectual.

ARIANNA MASSE:One thing that I really admire about her is that she has a lot of projects going on at once and she’s someone who really likes to have her hand in everything. So it’s nice to see somebody be the CEO of a company while also contributing to the community and things like that.

TARTAGLIONE: Her contribution begins with her Retail Incubator, which has already funded $10,000 in grants to help other Black Entrepreneurs with the high costs of being in downtown. Caeresa’s message through it is to the local community.

RICHARDSON: There is a bit of a renaissance going on in Syracuse and I really wanted to be a part of it. I didn’t see many visible businesses that were owned by Black people in downtown Syracuse. So I really wanted to encourage people in my community members of my community to see ourselves as business owners in downtown Syracuse.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) –  When ECODESSA opened its doors during the pandemic, the owner focused on growing  Black-owned businesses in Syracuse.

Cearesa Richardson, a Black woman who  owns and runs  the company, used her background as an engineer to create an e-commerce retail brand that included a brick and mortar store on Salina Street in the downtown area.

Black-owned businesses in the United States generated $133.7 billion in total income in 2020 with 134,567  total businesses,  according to the U.S. Census.

Richardson wanted to grow that number in Syracuse. She did so by creating a retail incubator program, using $ 25,000 of her own money to launch it. She   funded two businesses  so far with a total of $10,000. Those grans will help cover the expensive price tag that rent costs for retailers.

“The cost to open in downtown is around four times the cost to open anywhere outside of the city,” she said.  “It isn’t really warranted because the area doesn’t have the foot traffic that would warrant rent four times rather than some place else.”

ECODESSA is a high-end retail store that sells products ranging from clothing to home essentials. Richardson said she chooses suppliers  environmentally and ethically-friendly products.

A Syracuse University graduate, Richardson worked as an engineer before becoming a business owner and said her stylistic needs drove her to open the business originally.

ECODESSA has its  own retail website, as well as a YouTube page with livestreams.

 

 

 

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