Magic Johnson Builds Community Through Business Growth and Development


NBA legend and Hall-Of-Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson is making magic again, this time in the business world. In a flurry of announced business activity this week, News 12 the Bronx informs us that Magic Johnson dropped by a Cablevision call center in the Bronx today to promote his new TV channel “Aspire.” Magic’s Aspire channel will, according to the former NBA superstar, promote positive programming by airing shows like The Jeffersons and Sanford and Son. Johnson went on to say that positive shows kept him off the streets and in the house with his family when he was growing up. He also said “Family is the most important, and those shows brought us together” and “that family time made me into the man I am today.”

Today’s appearance at the Cablevision call center in New York follows on the heels of yesterday’s announcement by the Flint School District in Flint, Michigan, that it will be outsourcing its food service to a company in which Magic Johnson is the majority stakeholder. In an article by mlive.com, we learn that the Flint Board of Education approved a $3.36 million contract with Sodexo MAGIC at its meeting on June 18. Sodexo MAGIC will take over food service at Flint Schools beginning on July 1 as part of the district’s plan to cut down a $10.4 million budget deficit.

As part of the plan, 250 district employees were laid off. Sodexo Magic will, in the words of school district manager John E White, “acquire” the staff for its food service operations within the district. Laid off employees are eligible to apply to work for Sodexo MAGIC, but the company will, even at its peak, have a reduced staff as compared to that the district directly employed beforehand. In the article by mlive, we also learn that Magic Johnson’s company, Sodexo MAGIC has also taken over food service operations in the Saginaw, Michigan School District.

Aside from gains in the TV and food service industry, earlier this week, mlive.com also informs us that a development team led by Magic Johnson will be updating the public in regards to its plans to turn the former Detroit State Fairgrounds in northern Detroit into a mixed use development property that will include 500,000 square feet of retail and housing, plus a new movie theater. The development project has been in the preliminary stages for quite some time. It was effectively rejected in November, 2012 by community members who called it “big box boring.”

However, Magic Johnson and his Magic Plus LLC team will update the public on revised plans for the development on June, 26. The new plans would call for the demolition of most of the original buildings on the property but preserve a few iconic ones such as the coliseum and state fair band shell. The new plans also call for a major update to the mass transit hub on site. The developer, Magic Plus LLC, estimates that 900 part-time and full- time jobs will be created as a result of the retail segment of the project and in total, the development plan would create approximately 1,300 permanent jobs. For more business inside about Magic Johnson, please reference the Inquisitr.

For those of us who only consider the more prominently known NBA side of Magic Johnson, we would be neglecting the more business savvy side of the NBA all-star. Magic Johnson continues to contribute to his community through advocating business growth and development; enabling those he reaches to help themselves. That’s real magic.

Share this article: Magic Johnson Builds Community Through Business Growth and Development
More from Inquisitr