CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte bakery is expanding to a new part of town. BW Sweets will open a third location at the intersection of Lasalle Street and Beatties Ford Road this summer.

For Frankie White, you could call it his passion project, a hobby, or just something he loves doing.

"It’s good to come to work and love what you do, love the people you work with,” White says in his bakery.

The main BW Sweets is located at 5821 East W.T. Harris Boulevard. A smaller spot is in South End at 1425 Winnifred Street. But White is in the middle of creating an empire from a hobby grounded in heartbreak.

"My 8-year-old son had cancer, and he unfortunately kind of started his demise late 2010. And in 2011, in March, when he passed away, baking was therapy for me,” White says.

The baker says after the loss of his son Bradley, he started baking all kinds of things to pass the time; for friends and family and just as a distraction.

Eventually, demand for orders led him to turn it into a business.

Ten years later, White is about to open his third location in Charlotte, named after his son.

"In that community there is not a bakery, there is not an ice cream shop. We’re hoping to fulfill a need there,” White adds.

A BW Sweets, or a Bradley White Sweets if you wanted to make Frankie smile, will open in summer 2021 at Lasalle Street and Beatties Ford Road.

It won’t just be sugar and sweets; there’s some meat to the expansion. White uses space at his bakery for small business classes and mentoring.

"There was no one to guide me, you know, I kind of jumped in feet first and I made a lot of mistakes, I learned along the way,” White says.

When his new store opens as an anchor tenant at a new shopping center, it’ll be a symbol of success in a pandemic.

"Being a Black owned business is just the icing on the cake. But to be able to teach young children, to teach those who have the same drive and ambition, that this is something you can do. Yes you may have to step out, yes you may stumble, yes you may fall, but it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” White says under his mask.

It is his second expansion in less than a year. White says a combination of product innovations, loyal customers, and creative ideas, like a dessert food truck, helped his business through COVID-19.

He says they luckily managed to avoid laying off any of his 15 staff members or even reducing hours. In fact, with a third location, he’ll likely have to hire more.

Together, in a son’s memory, they will provide new sights, smells, and sounds to an area of Charlotte in need of a sweet tooth revitalization.