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•  93rd Street Community Missionary Baptist Church
• Black Business Association
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• Floral Park Homeowner Association
• Greater New Bethel Baptist Church
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 Featured In Newspaper-The Miami Herald

• STORE A SOURCE FOR FRESH FOOD -- AND FOR HOPE
  Source: MIMI WHITEFIELD Herald Business Writer
  When Emma Martin first saw the burned out-hulk of a former Hi-Lo Supermarket in Liberty City, it hardly looked like a dream business. But she was able to see beyond the charred walls and the smoke-damaged cash registers. Today, nearly a year since she first toured the store, Martin will open Liberty City's first black-owned and operated supermarket. The doors of the newly christened Prestige Supermarket, now painted a crisp green and white, will swing open for business at 8 a.m.
  Published on March 2, 1998, Page 7BM, Miami Herald, The (FL)
• RIGHT FIT FOR RETAIL BLACKS AREN'T BACKING BLACK BUSINESSES, MERCHANTS SAY
  Source: LESLIE CASIMIR Herald Staff Writer
  The register rarely rings at the new Prestige Supermarket. Since the Liberty City store opened in March, the most a customer has spent on groceries has been about $50. Heralded as the first black-owned and operated supermarket on 54th Street -- a strip known as the highway to heaven with its storefront churches -- owner Emma Martin finds herself reviewing her low sales and high bills. Then she poses herself this agonizing question: When will the crowds come? ``Where are all the black
  Published on June 21, 1998, Page 1F, Miami Herald, The (FL)
• BLUNT ECONOMIC REALITIES STRUCK PRESTIGE IN FINAL MONTHS
  Source: MIMI WHITEFIELD, mwhitefield@herald.com
  No one can accuse Emma Martin of not trying to keep her store afloat. She constantly prospected for new financing; she tried to network and approached various economic development groups; she even put in a bakery and deli to boost sales and offered chicken and oxtail dinners and Friday fish fries. ``By the time we paid the gas, the cook and a helper, the deli was holding its own, but it really didn't contribute to the bottom line of the rest of the
  Published on November 29, 1999, Page 23BM, Miami Herald, The (FL)
• EMMA MARTIN'S $450,000 QUESTION
  Source: MIMI WHITEFIELD, mwhitefield@herald.com
  Just before Halloween, Emma Martin temporarily locked the doors of Prestige Supermarket, the first black-owned supermarket in Liberty City, in an effort to cut expenses while she tried to figure out what to do. The bills were choking her. She owed vendors; she was behind on her loan payments to Miami Capital Development Corp., and she didn't even have the cash to keep the freezers running and the lights on. ``I'm trying everything I can to make this store work.
  Published on November 29, 1999, Page 20BM, Miami Herald, The (FL)
• CITY SEVERS TIES WITH MIAMI CAPITAL, TAKES OVER LOANS
  Source: MIMI WHITEFIELD, mwhitefield@herald.com
  Since Emma Martin closed Prestige Supermarket - the first black-owned supermarket in Liberty City - last month, she has been busy trying to forestall foreclosure. Martin, whose dream of owning a business turned into a nightmare of debt, is looking for a buyer for the store, investors to do a cash buyout, or anyone who might suggest a workable alternative. Miami Capital, the private lending corporation that until last week lent community block grant funds the city of Miami received from the
  Published on December 20, 1999, Page 13BM, Miami Herald, The (FL)