Donald Jones weighs opportunities in Buffalo

Donald C. Jones has a fondness for Buffalo.

In 1991, while working in retail, he came here to open a Lechmere store at the Walden Galleria and met his future wife.

Jones has an extensive background in the retail world, having held leadership positions at Gap, Target, IKEA and Macy’s. He founded Verite Capital Partners in 2009.

Jones was recently in Buffalo for meetings and presentations, with an eye on potential opportunities for Verite.

What would it take for him to get involved in Buffalo?

“It would be like-minded people who understand the importance of a city like Buffalo and where we are going, especially the underserved people in the area,” Jones said. “I’m here to see what my involvement could be. I was invited by the city’s top leadership to see what our efforts could do.”

Jones lives in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and said one of his passions is helping to revive the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut. He draws on his experience in retail.

“I did a lot of stuff at Gap and Target,” Jones said. “It gave me the platform to understand all these different communities across the country and around the world and that some communities just need to have someone like me and others and my friends and my colleagues, to come at the table to add the energy to start a project off on the right foot, sometimes that’s what’s needed.

Jones recently spoke with a group of SCORE Buffalo Niagara business mentoring volunteers. One audience member spoke of the East Side’s “food desert,” with its lack of fresh food and grocery options for residents. Jones said he is happy to have the chance to be part of a solution.

Later, Jones explained how a supermarket can succeed in an underserved area.

“I think roommates around a supermarket are also becoming very important,” Jones said. “When you have a supermarket, you want affordable clothing, you want affordable health care. You want to be a destination for the community to participate. The best ones are where it becomes a community of businesses than the grocery store , the supermarket really anchors Because people usually also need other services.

Urban areas aren’t the only ones facing food deserts: Rural areas face the same problem, Jones said.

Verite focuses its attention on underserved communities. Jones said he enjoys demonstrating that businesses can succeed where others think it’s impossible.

More than 20 years ago, while working for Gap, he persuaded the company to open a store on Fordham Road in the Bronx. “I’ve always believed in underserved areas,” he said. “Frankly, there were a lot of naysayers arguing why we shouldn’t open a store on Fordham Road.”

Jones is not the type of person to be dissuaded. He remembers having only a few minutes to make his case for opening the store to two Gap board members, Steve Jobs and Charles Schwab.

With the green light to open the store, Jones worked on the right assortment of merchandise for the Fordham Road store to attract its customer base. “We opened this store without khakis,” he said. “Can you imagine opening a Gap store without khakis?”

In Buffalo, Jones also met with Launch New York. The Buffalo-based nonprofit serves the 27 westernmost counties of Upstate New York, providing startups with access to seed capital and pro bono mentoring.

“We share a number of opportunities with him, which is a sign of the times as we have helped several companies raise capital over the past year, not only through our funds, but also through presentations to other institutional investors,” said Marnie LaVigne, Launch CEO of New York. “It’s a common practice for us lately, of course, with permission from companies when sharing something exclusive.”

SCORE Buffalo Niagara has recruited more volunteers to serve as mentors to budding and new businesses.

The local chapter now has about 30 volunteers, said Gary Friedman, the president.

“It lightens the load on everyone,” he said. The group welcomes more volunteers to help, at score.org/buffaloniagara.

The composition of SCORE has changed over time. His volunteer mentors no longer have to be retired, although many of them are.

At a chapter meeting, Friedman explained the significant impact a successful small business can have and how mentors play a supportive role.

“The best way to build generational wealth is to own your own business,” he said.

Friedman said the pandemic “changed everything,” giving many people the impetus to strike out on their own and become entrepreneurs.

“People didn’t want to work anymore,” he said. “They didn’t want to be able to work for someone else. They wanted to make their own decisions, they wanted to lead their own lives, they wanted to follow their own dreams.”

Want to know more? Three stories to catch you up:

A new a warehouse is planned near the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

250 senior apartments are proposed for Amherst.

SUNY Buffalo State is remove programs and offer buyouts to cover its budget deficit.

A cluster of housing near the former Médaille University campus is up for sale.

FeedMore WNY is get cheap electricity for its new headquarters.

A Falconer manufacturer has new owners.

A large affordable housing project is in preparation for Dunkirk.

Unemployment rate in Buffalo Niagara remains relatively low.

Evans Bank is looking for customers in the legal cannabis sector.

Five reads from Buffalo Next:

1. Where is all the steel for the new Buffalo Bills stadium? derived from?

2. ‘It’s terrible’: Family Dollar closings will wipe out six East Side stores

3. Do personal seat licenses retain their value? Here’s what happened in other NFL markets.

4. How does a SUNY school stands for his efforts to encourage students who had dropped out of college to return to the classroom.

5. Michael Montante looks back on four years as CEO of Uniland.

The Buffalo Next team gives you insight into the region’s economic revitalization. Email tips to [email protected] or contact Buffalo Next editor David Robinson at 716-849-4435.

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