feature
Michael Agbortoko Jr. is in the process of starting a new business, Soxcessful, in the Midtown Mall. Here he shows how customers will be able enjoy an interactive, online experience at his store. WALTER BIRD JR.
believe where there is chaos, or people think there’s chaos, there is a hidden gem there. You have to find a way to nurture it. Some things take time. We all have to work together. It’s bigger than us.” Is the Midtown Mall, he was asked, one of those gems? “Of course,” he said. “I’m five minutes away from where the new [Worcester Red Sox] stadium
‘HE HELPS A LOT OF PEOPLE’
C
hami Nelson, CEO of Wireless Xperts, was selling cell phones and streaming devices out of his house and at flea markets when he was told about the Midtown Mall. But it wasn’t as easy as just showing up and sign-
ing a lease. Nelson had been to jail, serving time on drug charges. He was released a few years ago. Even before he was sentenced, Nelson said, he had stopped engaging in illegal activity. At the time he learned about the mall, he said, the flea market he was working at in Shrewsbury “had problems.” “I had no choice,” Nelson said. “It was either my house or somewhere else. I talked to Dean. It took me a while. He did a background check. It took three months to get that place. Dean’s a hard guy to deal with. I was literally going back every day. I had money in my pocket, he didn’t want it. He was so suspicious. He would come in my store and stay in there for about a month, sit down and see what we were doing. Now he loves us.” Marcus, said Nelson, is a “little old guy, but he’s a good guy. He’s old school.” He said his store, which buys, sells, repairs and trades phones, brings traffic to the mall. At the price Marcus charges for rent, Nelson said, “It’s like no way, it would be triple” the price to rent a similar space downtown. Nelson said he has two spaces at the mall, including an upstairs
office. He also pointed out, as other tenants did, that Marcus donated some of the material for his store. The showcases where phones are displayed, Nelson said, came from Marcus. “You can work with him,” he said of his landlord. “There’s nowhere downtown you’ll find anywhere like that. No way. Front Street is actually a prime area right now. The only problem is you’re inside the mall.” Nelson said he attracts many customers online. The building, he concedes, is not in the best condition. “For a start it’s good. The price of the rent can’t be beat,” Nelson said. “That’s the main part, and the location. It’s downtown, it’s prime real estate. Inside is not the best. It can be better. A lot of people walk in every day. They think it’s a dead space. But my store gets busy.” In fact, said Nelson, the low rent at the mall allowed him to open a new store in Connecticut, a process he said is currently in the works. His next location, he said, will be Boston. He said he plans to keep his Worcester store in the mall “if they don’t close us down.”
M A R C H 14 - 20, 2019 WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
15
asked, afford to rent a different space downtown? “No way,” he answered without hesitation. Marcus, he said, “has been awesome,” and Agbortoko said he looks forward to “playing my part in pushing the city up.” Finding the Midtown Mall, he said, was “almost too perfect.” “I came home in November,” he said, adding when he is not traveling, he resides in Southbridge. The idea came to me that I needed to open. I looked at a few different locations in Worcester and saw an ad on Craigslist.” He described the oft-maligned Marcus in much the same way Colon did. “When I meet someone,” Agbortoko said, “I can see positive energy. When he showed me this space, it was almost what I envisioned. My brain was going crazy. Speaking with some of the guys around here who have companies, another tailor guy around the corner, he was telling me people are always asking about socks and stuff. It was all about timing. It was almost like God said, ‘Here it is.’” Agbortoko, like Colon, has heard the complaints about the mall, and the talk about eminent domain. And like Colon, he thinks the tenants can help save it. “There’s a saying,” Agbortoko said. “‘Negativity sells.’ I’m an entrepreneur. My job is to create solutions and tackle some of the world’s problems. The best way I can is by following the rules and creating a space for people to enjoy. “I was born in Cameroon. I’ve seen poverty, a lot of hardship. I
will be, five minutes away from a hospital. This summer I plan to host free movies right across from here [on City Common]. What else can I ask for?” Whatever happens with the mall, he said, is out of his hands. Then again, perhaps not. “I’m in the center of Worcester,” he said of working in the mall. “It’s almost like a village. We will help revive this place and bring people in. [Marcus] seems willing to work with us. Whatever’s going to happen, we’ll make the best out of it, and keep focusing and inspiring and helping people have the best experience.”