Curtis D. Robinson migrated to Hartford, from Birmingham, Alabama, in 1958. He worked two full-time and one part-time job for three years until he was able to purchase a grocery store at the corner of Capen and Vine Streets at the age of eighteen. He later purchased the building and opened Curtis’ Little Pub and Curtis’ Pizza House on the premises. At the young age of twenty-two, Curtis was the owner of a restaurant, grocery store, cleaners, an apartment building and a construction supply company. In 1969, he started the Small Business Development Program, creating over one hundred small businesses in the greater Hartford and Springfield areas. In 1976, he became one of the first downtown entrepreneurs of color with the opening of the Staircase Lounge Supper Club on Asylum Street, facing Bushnell Park.
Mr. Robinson continued to grow as an entrepreneur and today is the owner, operator and President of C&R Development Company, the largest minority construction management company in the east. Mr. Robinson recently owned the C&R National ATM Company, Inc., which was licensed to sell and lease ATM machines in thirty-eight states. He is also the owner of eight shops at Bradley International Airport including a Brooks Brothers and CNBC. Mr. Robinson owns the 55,000 square foot Air Exchange Building located at Bradley International Airport. His other businesses include R&G Services which operates the shuttle bus service at the airport and R&G Parking which operates, among others, one of the largest parking lots in downtown Hartford.
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