Brand Loyalty: Starbucks, Burger King, 24 Hour Fitness ally themselves with the power of Magic.

There’s no getting around it: Every single thing about Earvin “Magic” Johnson commands immediate attention. At 6’9” and 255 pounds, he is the tallest point guard in NBA history and boasts an equally colossal trophy case (which includes five NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, six MVP awards, and an Olympic gold medal). Upon retiring from professional basketball in 1992, Johnson had racked up 17,707 points, 6,559 rebounds, 10,141 assists and 1,724 steals—a career pedigree well deserving of his 2002 Hall of Fame induction.

Indeed, the Magic Johnson name is synonymous with passion, achievement, and success in the face of adversity. Little surprise, then, that companies such as Starbucks and T.G.I. Friday’s—no brand weaklings themselves—chose to partner with Magic Johnson Enterprises (MJE), the company the 12-time All-Star formed in 1987, to deliver high-quality entertainment and service venues to ethnically diverse urban communities.

In fact, Urban Coffee Opportunities, the joint venture between MJE and Starbucks launched in 1998 to introduce retail and business opportunities to urban communities, is the only program where Starbucks co-brands with any entity in the development of its locations.

Those brand joint ventures play well at Canyon- Johnson Urban Funds, where mixed-use development is de rigueur as savvy urban dwellers demand amenity-rich properties with fitness, entertainment, and casual dining opportunities. “It is a stable of relationships that have managed to gather and garner the trust of the urban consumer through the bottom-line thesis,” says Canyon- Johnson managing partner Bobby Turner. He believes that the success of the partnerships with Starbucks, 24 Hour Fitness, Burger King, and Washington Mutual Home Loan Centers prove that “a positive financial impact and a positive community impact do not have to be mutually exclusive.”

Are such partnerships a given at any Canyon-Johnson property? Certainly not, but the relationships don’t hurt, since the Canyon-Johnson team is always looking for retail partners suited to the demographics and psychographics of any given community.

Brand recognition also extends to fundraising, where Canyon-Johnson enjoys first-call status. “Their brand name is unique,” says Alan Snoddy, a senior vice president for Church Pension Fund, an investment partner in all three Canyon-Johnson funds. “There are other development funds with [such] partnerships, but Canyon- Johnson has had a lot of successful projects. They are a first call for a lot of people with deal flow, and I [suspect] they have the political inside track as well. Magic Johnson? If you are looking at urban redevelopment, that’s an easy phone call for a mayor to make.”