HBCU Graduates Aim To Revitalize Black-Owned Atlantic Beach Through Their Real Estate Investment Company

ATLANTIC BEACH, SC—A historic Black-owned beach in South Carolina is quickly becoming one of the hottest luxury vacation destinations in the United States. It is currently the only incorporated Black beach in the U.S.

During the early 1930s, Atlantic Beach was founded by a group of Gullah Geechee as a haven for Black people who were not allowed to occupy the same beaches as white people in South Carolina. Defying Jim Crow laws, the strip of primarily Black-owned coastal properties, dubbed “The Black Pearl,” broadened the enterprises of coastal Gullah Geechee people. Several hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, and novelty shops were developed miles from Myrtle Beach. Now, two trailblazing founders are on a mission to continue honoring the rich history that makes up the area.

Although they are business partners, Tiffany Bailey Lash, Ph.D., and Tashni-Ann Dubroy, Ph.D., MBA, former President of Shaw University, have a relationship rooted in sisterhood. Together, the HBCU alums and friends are on a mission to revitalize and commemorate Atlantic Beach’s rich heritage through their real estate company, Tilair Capital.

“The seed for me was planted a very long time ago,” Lash recalled during an interview with AfroTech. “It’s interesting how things grow differently when you sow seeds. Growing up in North Carolina, my family would visit the beach, and several groups would stay in one house. We didn’t have much, but it was something about getting together at the beach. What I’m starting to notice, and what feels good, is that people are happy at the beach. When I see minorities, we deal with many things, but when we get by the water and just the beach, it seems like our cares go away, so there has always been something planted in me through those memories.”

When a neighbor informed Lash about a Black beach just alongside Myrtle Beach, she decided to take it upon herself to check it out, and the rest is history. It wasn’t long before the women of Tilair Capital purchased a plot of land occupying the beach in 2022. Within seven months, construction began on the Serenity Beach Home. The seven-bedroom home is available for people to rent as a South Carolina coastal getaway. 

“You could feel the importance of the area and the people, and it was so invigorating that I immediately called Tashni and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we have to support this area.’”

Dubroy added, “As Tiffany mentioned, we’ve been lifelong business partners and done multiple businesses together. So we’re ultimately exceptionally great friends but also accountability partners. We’ve done a haircare company. We graduated from NC State University and walked across the stage at the same time with our Ph.D.’s in physical organic chemistry and engineering. And so, there would be no other person we would think about when it comes to doing something of this kind, especially as it relates to building a legacy for our children. I also think that the area itself, the Atlantic Beach area, required a revitalization with investors who were passionate about real estate development and preserving the integrity of Atlantic Beach. I think it’s important for investors to invest with passion and compassion.”

Investing in Atlantic Beach was much more about the people than the property for Dubroy and Lash. As they continue to modernize the space through their beach home property, they are also committed to creating generational wealth and a legacy that their families can be proud of.

“When I think of our work as land and legacy developers, one of the beautiful things is that Wayfair featured us as a Wayfair partner, and in one of the comments — and we hear this all the time — people were like, ‘Oh my goodness, my grandparents used to bring us here,’ you know to Atlantic Beach,” Nash recalled. “If I had money for every time someone said that. I invited one of my best friends to look at the home, and she said, ‘I’ve been here before; my grandmother used to bring me here.’ And so the legacy is amazing there, and it’s so amazing that it’s hard to get it. Tashni and I actually may have waited a whole year.”

Atlantic Beach is structured so that the person who purchased the land divided it among African American families. All four streets, equal in size, belong to different Black families, meaning the property has been held onto for years. 

While holding on to the land is excellent, Nash says it did delay the Tilair Capital team’s ability to begin building on the revitalization process, but it has all been worth it in the end. Now, they hope to purchase even more plots of land in the area to build vacation homes in the future. 

“Atlantic Beach is a tucked away part of North Myrtle Beach that is exceptionally serene,” Dubroy said. “Even though beautiful beachside properties are owned by people who look like us, Black everyday people who are not exceptionally wealthy in terms of monetary investment have enough to invest in the area. When I look at my family and the example that Tiff and I have set for our young children, for example, they get to see two people who have been able to save enough money to follow their passion. I think that has been what I’d call the backbone of what we have accomplished through our careers.”

This article first appeared in AfroTech.