Dontrella McDonald

Dontrella McDonald is the Chief Executive Officer of Chi City Cafe and the Chief Financial Officer of Holter Intellectual Property, Inc. She is also the author of The Emotional Business Plan: A Transit System of Healing. In the Tower District she owns both the Chi City Cafe corner at 101 HIP Way and the Coffy Town Roasters building at 102 HIP Way, where her coffee brewer’s program serves Voices of Foster Care.

Motherhood came to her a second time. Dontrella is an adoptive mother who was given a second chance at motherhood after a near-death experience.

Her next chapter is bigger than a cafe: a community campus where a cup of coffee opens the door to connection, career pathways, and ownership for young people — including youth aging out of foster care and young mothers.

Healing requires expression. Expression demands opportunity. And opportunity without ownership leaves our youth vulnerable to the whims of an indifferent system.

Healing cannot remain theoretical. It must have a zip code — a physical address, a front porch, a patch of earth where a young person can plant both a seed and a future.

Holter Intellectual Property, Inc. — in partnership with the Voices of Foster Care initiative — is advancing a concrete, shovel-ready initiative: the HIP Community Workforce Development Campus, anchored by the Chi City Cafe Workforce Development Program.

This is not a traditional real estate venture. It is a public-purpose civic partnership that transforms one to two acres of underutilized land into an engine of entrepreneurship, creative wellness, and intergenerational independence — built fast, built beautiful, and built without heavy brick-and-mortar debt.