In the middle of 2009 I entered into an agreement with Johnson Edosomwan Jr to purchase 50% of Higher Ground Wellness Cafe for $154,000 address 810 west grace street Richmond, Virginia 23220.This was a great location anchored by a Chipotle and Pandrea Bread. We leased the location from Hot Spot One LLC owned by the respectful Tony Chater.
As I saw Johnson Edosomwan Junior's father Johnson Edosomwan Senior owned a company called JJA Consultants, so it seemed he came from a respectable family. Now it was agreed that I was only an investor and he and his partner Stephen Billowus would be operators and if he needed my expertise in this project would be extended to my expertise in management companies that we could work with to make the burden of operating the place easier.
Stephen Billowus was the other listed partner of the project as a childhood friend of Johnson Edosomwan Jr he had a 25% stake in the company. I myself, had known known John only for a year and a half or so as a friend had introduced me to him and it seemed as if if he came from a good family and we shared some common interest so we became decent friends. At this point, when I came on board, the project was barely viable as much had not been done inside of the cafe and only a visionary such as myself would invest.
I took this risk and over the course of the next year and a half I invested into this project the full $160,000. I would perodically check into the place from afar and call a few times a week, as I was a partner and managing director in a flagged Hotel right outside of Washington DC. The place was finally 95% finished we just had to put in a little more restauraunt equipment.
In the later summer of 2011 it was requested additional capital of $60,000 would be required to finish the project. $10,000 for final touches and $50,000 for inventory. Right before this time in spring I also starting noticing a darker side to John. One time he left out of state somewhere for two weeks and didn’t call me or return my call which I was very upset about this, seeing how we were business partners and we had an ongoing project.
Also another time he told me he doesn’t care if he died and if someone tried to come inside the house rob him he would gladly just shoot them all even if they didn’t have guns. I said think about your family, you have to think about them when you make these decisions these are all people who care about you. It started to seem that this guy was thinking more naive and selfish at times rather then an intellectual. I also now heard about some bad things from other people he had done in his past.
He also having problems with our landlord Tony Chater for no reason and was trying to constantly act tough around him instead of being very respectful. This all worried me a bit but seeing how we were almost done I knew I could cover up any rough spots. With me having expertise in management companies on the operation side of things we would still be able to pull this off..
I had already invested the $154,000 which at times was spent unwisely by the team therefore the project went overbudget. I also emphasized I would have trouble getting more then the $154,000 at the beginning so lets make sure we spend it wisely. I wanted to be firm to make sure we do a good job and kept it tight. However, I had no objection in getting the other $60,000 infact I was going to get $80,000.
We had come along way and the project was going fantastic. We were all young, happy, ambitious and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to succeed. I told John I would need until November or December at the latest to gather the rest of this $80,000. Keep in mind neither of them were raising a single dollar and I was gathering the rest of the money and not asking for anymore equity in return we were simpily allocating it as a loan to the business.
Typically my roll in the business would be to call twice a week and I would stop by to the see progress of the place for two or three times a month and I would be able to express creative Control. The three of us would but heads sometimes as all partners do but we all got a along pretty well and we would always try to come to an agreement. However, anytime funds were not in hand most of the time communication would stop and everyone would go about their daily routine working on their other various projects and day to day life routine.
This might have happend two or three times for a week or two at the most where we stopped working because of a budget constraint as the money was being traunched so it would be used wisely. The project holted as we were anticipating the final $80,000 from my team of investor’s pocket. I had a group in New York ready to give me a $80,000 cash advance in late November.
We decided a good open date would be January of 2012 spring semester. Consequently in Fall we all were not talking as much though, however as always everyone was still on friendly terms. Everyone was still super excited and for us to even get this far was great success and we all saw the greater vision. It was stressed for everyone to be patience as we had dressed this project into a tuxedo and it was pretty much done. I had a full time job as Hotelier in the Washington DC area, so during fall I was busy with that and playing on my friends Kickball and Soccer team in my freetime and going out with friends.
John told me he would be going back to school to complete some classes in fall. This was quite fine to me as he was staying busy. We would still try to talk once a week or so. At some point I had not heard from John in over a week I wrote him an email telling him to give me a call. 3 or 4 days had passed and I still had not heard anything, which was a little strange but I wasn’t worried.
To my dismay at work I get a call from our third partner Stephen Billowus on September 9th or so saying that John had been shot and he is dead. I was absolutely astonished, apparently he had commited suicide. God Rest his soul. It literally came out of nowhere. However in retrospect he and Stephen both would carry a gun, which I never advocated because they really didn’t need it as they both grew up in the suburbs. And at times when I would go to there house it would be loaded laying on the counter.
I had never bought a gun or a shot weapon before and never saw a need to. I did have a few other friends who had guns but it would always turn me the wrong way. It’s almost like people trying to be tough and feel their ego validated for no reason. And it’s not like these guys were hunters either that anothers thing altogether. Even then if your a hunter you don’t need to be around with a loaded weapon all day.
I understand in certain positions people may need guns but this wasn’t one of them. We were on the verge of being extremely prosperous cafe owners, unfortunately these people were not ready to be adults in their lives. At this point seeing how close the cafe was to being open they should of thought about how they can eliminate negative characteristics in their lives and become better community people. Now I had to deal with cleaning up this mess and almost feeling like a scapegoat seeing how I was a few years older then both of these kids.
I wrote a letter to their family speaking good things about their son and how he was pleasure to work with even if I only knew him a short time. After the funeral progressions, which I was kind enough to go too, it was asked that I come to his Masonic church, the Johnson Edosomwan Senior Church in Fairfax, Virginia by the father of John, Mr. Johnson Edosomwan Senior also the owner of JJA Consultants. I went there with my father. In retrospect I should of brought a lawyer but this was a delicate situation.
I met Johnson, his wife Mary and one of their kids. Stephen was also at the meeting. Of course I was very sad about what had transpired, we all were. John had 25% of the cafe, Stephen had 25% and my group had the other 50%. I still remember early on when John had said that he invested somewhere between $40,000 to $50,0000. I calmly offered the Edosomwan family $50,000 for this 25% assuming that they would be no longer want to be interested and be wanting to move on with their lives.
After all this is what they had been expressing to me the whole time that they want to move on with their lives. So being young still and realizing the loss of their, I felt obligiated to just clean up the mess for everyone. I should of been as rash as them though. Mr. Edosomwan responded back saying he wanted $250,000 for 25% of something that hadn’t even been opened yet and now needed a new operator/management as the previous one had died.
This place couldn't even catch $50,000 on the turnkey as it wasn't open and we didn't own the real estate. I was astonished, it wasn’t about the money as my family has money. I have dozens of uncles who are millionaires and a few who are billionaires in my family. At that point if they had offered me $150,000 for 50% I would of greatly accepted it. Of course that was not happening Mr. Edosomwan had no interest in the business or even his son starting it, in the first place.
The way that Mr. Edosomwan carries himself is not of a gentle and kind person, someone who is rather a shrewd businessman, a bully who has demons that he hides and only he can declare. It’s ironic that he preaches the world of God and acts in a different manor. If he had stayed as focused on his son John as he was on his business I’m sure his son would still be alive. His son, John had a bunch of tattoos and carried a gun that Mr. Edosomwan didn’t even know about it, his son would do other bad things as well that I didn't realize until much later in the investment deal.
That sounds like a kid at risk to me. He should be shouldering the responsibiliy for this son’s death instead of looking at the other people, afterall he did commit suicide. I of course being a stand up person the whole time considering the entire situation, never got my lawyers involved or never asked for any money back or anything. Even though I should of responded to him by saying "well hey if you think it’s worth that much, then you purchase my 50% for $250,000."
I could of even went after him for the $154,000 that I loaned his son into the restaraunt as a equity blend deal. Someone had died for Gods sakes their more important things to worry about, and it wasn't about taking advantage of people. I just told him I will think about how we can proceed. A year passed I paid another $50,000 for the mortgage or so. With this place, something weird would always happen when I would go about to finish everything and open it.
Call it a bad omen, considering what transpired this is not a suprise. Also other things transpired after this guys death and a few week prior to his prior with other friends of his that were related to death and drugs which were not good at all. I’m sure Mr. Edosomwan would rather me keep those facts concealed as he concealed the entire death and their was absolutely no newsreport.
After a year and a half and much debate even though I wanted to leave something positive behind at the cafe, as it was suppose to be a wellness cafe it was apparent I was the only one who cared and everyone had moved on with their lives. It just didn't feel right throwing a Hookah Bar in there considering everything it was suppose to be and what happened. Therefore I to moved on and offered the Edosomwan Family or The Billowus family the keys back to the place free of charge, no money necessary. And of course everyone says no we don’t want it. Well isn’t that ironic because a year ago someone wanted $250,000 dollars for it.
Johnson Edosomwan Senior this is America, I was born in America and I grew up in Central Virginia as I understand you are from Nigeria. Learn how to act more like a respectful American. If you don't like it you can go back to Nigeria with your Grim Reaper. Johnson Edosomwan Senior, it is evident something isn't right about you, your energy is dark and disturbing and who knows how many other people you have taken advantage of. This is my story.
JJA Consultants Reviews
In the middle of 2009 I entered into an agreement with Johnson Edosomwan Jr to purchase 50% of Higher Ground Wellness Cafe for $154,000 address 810 west grace street Richmond, Virginia 23220.This was a great location anchored by a Chipotle and Pandrea Bread. We leased the location from Hot Spot One LLC owned by the respectful Tony Chater.
As I saw Johnson Edosomwan Junior's father Johnson Edosomwan Senior owned a company called JJA Consultants, so it seemed he came from a respectable family. Now it was agreed that I was only an investor and he and his partner Stephen Billowus would be operators and if he needed my expertise in this project would be extended to my expertise in management companies that we could work with to make the burden of operating the place easier.
Stephen Billowus was the other listed partner of the project as a childhood friend of Johnson Edosomwan Jr he had a 25% stake in the company. I myself, had known known John only for a year and a half or so as a friend had introduced me to him and it seemed as if if he came from a good family and we shared some common interest so we became decent friends. At this point, when I came on board, the project was barely viable as much had not been done inside of the cafe and only a visionary such as myself would invest.
I took this risk and over the course of the next year and a half I invested into this project the full $160,000. I would perodically check into the place from afar and call a few times a week, as I was a partner and managing director in a flagged Hotel right outside of Washington DC. The place was finally 95% finished we just had to put in a little more restauraunt equipment.
In the later summer of 2011 it was requested additional capital of $60,000 would be required to finish the project. $10,000 for final touches and $50,000 for inventory. Right before this time in spring I also starting noticing a darker side to John. One time he left out of state somewhere for two weeks and didn’t call me or return my call which I was very upset about this, seeing how we were business partners and we had an ongoing project.
Also another time he told me he doesn’t care if he died and if someone tried to come inside the house rob him he would gladly just shoot them all even if they didn’t have guns. I said think about your family, you have to think about them when you make these decisions these are all people who care about you. It started to seem that this guy was thinking more naive and selfish at times rather then an intellectual. I also now heard about some bad things from other people he had done in his past.
He also having problems with our landlord Tony Chater for no reason and was trying to constantly act tough around him instead of being very respectful. This all worried me a bit but seeing how we were almost done I knew I could cover up any rough spots. With me having expertise in management companies on the operation side of things we would still be able to pull this off..
I had already invested the $154,000 which at times was spent unwisely by the team therefore the project went overbudget. I also emphasized I would have trouble getting more then the $154,000 at the beginning so lets make sure we spend it wisely. I wanted to be firm to make sure we do a good job and kept it tight. However, I had no objection in getting the other $60,000 infact I was going to get $80,000.
We had come along way and the project was going fantastic. We were all young, happy, ambitious and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to succeed. I told John I would need until November or December at the latest to gather the rest of this $80,000. Keep in mind neither of them were raising a single dollar and I was gathering the rest of the money and not asking for anymore equity in return we were simpily allocating it as a loan to the business.
Typically my roll in the business would be to call twice a week and I would stop by to the see progress of the place for two or three times a month and I would be able to express creative Control. The three of us would but heads sometimes as all partners do but we all got a along pretty well and we would always try to come to an agreement. However, anytime funds were not in hand most of the time communication would stop and everyone would go about their daily routine working on their other various projects and day to day life routine.
This might have happend two or three times for a week or two at the most where we stopped working because of a budget constraint as the money was being traunched so it would be used wisely. The project holted as we were anticipating the final $80,000 from my team of investor’s pocket. I had a group in New York ready to give me a $80,000 cash advance in late November.
We decided a good open date would be January of 2012 spring semester. Consequently in Fall we all were not talking as much though, however as always everyone was still on friendly terms. Everyone was still super excited and for us to even get this far was great success and we all saw the greater vision. It was stressed for everyone to be patience as we had dressed this project into a tuxedo and it was pretty much done. I had a full time job as Hotelier in the Washington DC area, so during fall I was busy with that and playing on my friends Kickball and Soccer team in my freetime and going out with friends.
John told me he would be going back to school to complete some classes in fall. This was quite fine to me as he was staying busy. We would still try to talk once a week or so. At some point I had not heard from John in over a week I wrote him an email telling him to give me a call. 3 or 4 days had passed and I still had not heard anything, which was a little strange but I wasn’t worried.
To my dismay at work I get a call from our third partner Stephen Billowus on September 9th or so saying that John had been shot and he is dead. I was absolutely astonished, apparently he had commited suicide. God Rest his soul. It literally came out of nowhere. However in retrospect he and Stephen both would carry a gun, which I never advocated because they really didn’t need it as they both grew up in the suburbs. And at times when I would go to there house it would be loaded laying on the counter.
I had never bought a gun or a shot weapon before and never saw a need to. I did have a few other friends who had guns but it would always turn me the wrong way. It’s almost like people trying to be tough and feel their ego validated for no reason. And it’s not like these guys were hunters either that anothers thing altogether. Even then if your a hunter you don’t need to be around with a loaded weapon all day.
I understand in certain positions people may need guns but this wasn’t one of them. We were on the verge of being extremely prosperous cafe owners, unfortunately these people were not ready to be adults in their lives. At this point seeing how close the cafe was to being open they should of thought about how they can eliminate negative characteristics in their lives and become better community people. Now I had to deal with cleaning up this mess and almost feeling like a scapegoat seeing how I was a few years older then both of these kids.
I wrote a letter to their family speaking good things about their son and how he was pleasure to work with even if I only knew him a short time. After the funeral progressions, which I was kind enough to go too, it was asked that I come to his Masonic church, the Johnson Edosomwan Senior Church in Fairfax, Virginia by the father of John, Mr. Johnson Edosomwan Senior also the owner of JJA Consultants. I went there with my father. In retrospect I should of brought a lawyer but this was a delicate situation.
I met Johnson, his wife Mary and one of their kids. Stephen was also at the meeting. Of course I was very sad about what had transpired, we all were. John had 25% of the cafe, Stephen had 25% and my group had the other 50%. I still remember early on when John had said that he invested somewhere between $40,000 to $50,0000. I calmly offered the Edosomwan family $50,000 for this 25% assuming that they would be no longer want to be interested and be wanting to move on with their lives.
After all this is what they had been expressing to me the whole time that they want to move on with their lives. So being young still and realizing the loss of their, I felt obligiated to just clean up the mess for everyone. I should of been as rash as them though. Mr. Edosomwan responded back saying he wanted $250,000 for 25% of something that hadn’t even been opened yet and now needed a new operator/management as the previous one had died.
This place couldn't even catch $50,000 on the turnkey as it wasn't open and we didn't own the real estate. I was astonished, it wasn’t about the money as my family has money. I have dozens of uncles who are millionaires and a few who are billionaires in my family. At that point if they had offered me $150,000 for 50% I would of greatly accepted it. Of course that was not happening Mr. Edosomwan had no interest in the business or even his son starting it, in the first place.
The way that Mr. Edosomwan carries himself is not of a gentle and kind person, someone who is rather a shrewd businessman, a bully who has demons that he hides and only he can declare. It’s ironic that he preaches the world of God and acts in a different manor. If he had stayed as focused on his son John as he was on his business I’m sure his son would still be alive. His son, John had a bunch of tattoos and carried a gun that Mr. Edosomwan didn’t even know about it, his son would do other bad things as well that I didn't realize until much later in the investment deal.
That sounds like a kid at risk to me. He should be shouldering the responsibiliy for this son’s death instead of looking at the other people, afterall he did commit suicide. I of course being a stand up person the whole time considering the entire situation, never got my lawyers involved or never asked for any money back or anything. Even though I should of responded to him by saying "well hey if you think it’s worth that much, then you purchase my 50% for $250,000."
I could of even went after him for the $154,000 that I loaned his son into the restaraunt as a equity blend deal. Someone had died for Gods sakes their more important things to worry about, and it wasn't about taking advantage of people. I just told him I will think about how we can proceed. A year passed I paid another $50,000 for the mortgage or so. With this place, something weird would always happen when I would go about to finish everything and open it.
Call it a bad omen, considering what transpired this is not a suprise. Also other things transpired after this guys death and a few week prior to his prior with other friends of his that were related to death and drugs which were not good at all. I’m sure Mr. Edosomwan would rather me keep those facts concealed as he concealed the entire death and their was absolutely no newsreport.
After a year and a half and much debate even though I wanted to leave something positive behind at the cafe, as it was suppose to be a wellness cafe it was apparent I was the only one who cared and everyone had moved on with their lives. It just didn't feel right throwing a Hookah Bar in there considering everything it was suppose to be and what happened. Therefore I to moved on and offered the Edosomwan Family or The Billowus family the keys back to the place free of charge, no money necessary. And of course everyone says no we don’t want it. Well isn’t that ironic because a year ago someone wanted $250,000 dollars for it.
Johnson Edosomwan Senior this is America, I was born in America and I grew up in Central Virginia as I understand you are from Nigeria. Learn how to act more like a respectful American. If you don't like it you can go back to Nigeria with your Grim Reaper. Johnson Edosomwan Senior, it is evident something isn't right about you, your energy is dark and disturbing and who knows how many other people you have taken advantage of. This is my story.