New city business is culmination of a dream

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The dream of opening her own real estate and rental business has always been present for Carmelie Diamond.

Although friends and family have stood beside her through several starts and stops, the support for Diamond’s plan hasn’t always been there, she said.

“I had heard that if you’re a woman and a minority, there are tons of grants and tons of funding out there,” Diamond said. “You don’t know how many times the door has been slammed in my face.”

The door now is wide open to her business ROC City Realty, which officially opened Friday at 169 Atlantic Ave.

Actually, Diamond also said a group of Rochester Institute of Technology students and their teacher also helped make the opening possible.

Several years ago, she met then-business professor Delmonize “Del” Smith at the RIT Imagine event, a showcase for innovation and creation.

Diamond’s niece — an RIT grad — said Smith was someone she should follow up with, and she did, sharing the business plan she had spent years developing.

Smith shared it with his students, who provided constructive criticism that to her credit, Diamond took to heart and used to make the plan better rather than reject the advice. He also pointed her to funding opportunities to help her get started.

Her willingness to listen showed something to Smith, who is now commissioner of the city’s Department of Neighborhood and Business Development and attended the grand opening.

Welcoming a minority woman-owned business is significant, Smith said, but the perseverance behind the long journey is as well.

“I said I’m going to keep an eye on her because I think she is going to be successful,” Smith said. “To see the culmination of what I saw on paper — and to know we had interactions over time and she had some setbacks — to be here is a real special moment.”

Diamond has been in the real estate business for 12 years, concentrating on rentals downtown and the Park Avenue, Upper Monroe and South Wedge neighborhoods. She also formerly worked for Conifer Realty on leasing its Erie Harbor project.

The downtown rental market has been experiencing a resurgence in recent years. A recent Rochester Downtown Development Corp. market report shows steady growth in the downtown residential population since 2000 and the opening of several new residential projects and others in the pipeline, including the Tower at Midtown mixed-use development.

Familiarity is one reason why Diamond chose to open in the Neighborhood of the Arts.

“Renting is going to be a primary focus of the downtown market,” Diamond said. “I know the downtown real estate market like the back of my hand.”

In addition to helping clients buy or rent homes, the business also will offer monthly educational seminars to help prospective homeowners and provide a tenant-finding service for apartment developers and landlords.

The business will be family operated — with husband Ray and daughters Dezaray Parker and Rae Diamond also helping out.

In fact Rae — the youngest — already is on the clock. She greeted Councilmember Elaine Spaull at the opening and welcomed her inside.

“That is the kind of energy I see in this business,” Spaull said.