myself you know something must happen you know Northridge is the largest contiguous part parcel in the city of Milwaukee to be developed absolutely so just a matter of time things don't happen overnight so I can't tell you if that's five years 10 years or 20 years yeah but real estate is the long play you know so
I would be looking at land opportunities, you know, out there, and it may just be buying whole or, you know, fixing flip or, you know, develop something, you know, right away.
Absolutely.
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Watch out for his name.
All right, so we are talking development, professionalism, all of the above.
The housing crisis, right?
For those who are joining us, can you just give a brief description again about what it is that you do?
Yeah, so I am a Milwaukee based real estate developer, a member group is the name of my firm.
We essentially buy land or buildings and we come up with the vision of how to repurpose the buildings, whether it be additions, renovations, or how to build new properties on top of the vacant land.
And we basically quarterback the entire transaction, hiring architects, hiring the contractors, getting the financing, owning, operating it or selling it.
That's a high level summary of what we do as real estate developers.
So we were talking about how the housing crisis and development overall.
Now let's talk about development versus community.
I've been watching some of the things play out.
One of the most recent things was the development and was the old Walmart in Midtown.
They didn't want it to be.
This was like a cyber center, whatever the case may be, which means that the community voiced their opinions.
My question is for you as a developer, do you think that residents should have a larger voice in shaping new developments?
Absolutely.
We will never develop anything in the vacuum without having community feedback.
That is paramount.
That's step one.
Yeah, you know, I'm never going into.
neighborhood you know without understanding happening yeah you know that that neighborhood and with the needs of that neighborhood are speaking with the local elected officials you know the black leaders you know etc that's that's step one yeah and should the question was specifically should the community have a larger role
in development, I think what we witnessed happen at Midtown, and it's not the first time something like that has happened.
I remember on King Drive, we were talking about Brownsville earlier, where the developer was trying to put a dollar tree.
And the community spoke out about it, and I was at those listening sessions, and the community voiced their opinion, and ultimately they got a grocery store there.
I'm in that grocery store a few times each week now.
Yep.
So the community conversations are extremely important.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
So we were talking about Brownsville.
Everybody know how much I love Brownsville.
How do you improve a neighborhood while preserving this history and culture?
And I speak of Bronzeville specifically because there's been so much work in two people trying to come in and take over who are not a part of our community and who do not understand the importance of having Bronzeville built to what it is now I've set in.
When I work for auto woman cogs, I sit in her office and watch her work effortlessly.
to build this district up so that it can become something that we're proud of.
So do you find any challenges with projects like this where you're trying to preserve the history, especially with the stipulations that some of the buildings may have if they're historic buildings?
Yeah, so how do you preserve the history in the neighborhood?
I think the answer to that question ties back to the prior question is involving the community.
The community has all that tacit knowledge, all that legacy that exists.
I think about real estate developers who came before me like Beachy Brooks and him developing, you know, How Your Park, right?
I can't imagine.
you know, developing something near Hellier Park without going to talk to those residents that have been there since the 70s, right?
To have that rich history and are vested in, you know, and I think, you know, from a cultural perspective, we as Black people, you know, historically in America, you know, a lot of things have been taken from us.
We've been disenfranchised, right?
We've been conditioned to like question everything and not trust.
You know, people would come in and say, oh, I'm going to do this because it has happened, you know, before where people have made commitments and didn't honor, you know,
those commitments.
So I think from a developer, one is talking to the community, understanding what their needs are.
But two is having a good reputation and doing what you say you're going to do.
And not every decision that you make is about economics.
Obviously, projects have to make money to be successful, no margin, no mission.
There's a compromise always.
So how can you involve the community residents in the planning process?
I think about our work with Brownsville Center for the Arts and the Black Arts Museum.
We're doing extensive community engagement.
How can you employ?
The local community so they see you know the benefits not just in the construction jobs, but in operations long-term.
Yeah, how can we keep our people working working and invested you know in our neighborhoods, so those are just some of the solutions and Related to like buildings.
I love history
So I'm absolutely for preserving historic buildings where it makes sense.
That part.
Our MLK library project was a good example of that.
The Garfield Theater.
there was nothing you could do with it, you know, like it was never going to operate as a theater again.
But it was important for us because, you know, I know the history of OIC, you know, being in that building, the Philadelphia church, you know, being in that building, we heard the community say, hey, you know, this building reminds us of something.
Yeah, right.
Don't don't take this building from us.
And we didn't, you know, we repurposed it.
And now there's nine live work units, you know, in that building right adjacent to the new library that
we.
Yeah, that's what you hire in my.
Maybe.
The people that need some jobs.
Yeah.
What is one of your your most precious project?
Like, what is a project that's like your favorite that you've done?
Oh, I have so many favorites.
For different reasons my first project that I built is I think In in the top three it's a home that I built on 20th Street And it's one of my favorites because my uncle was my first client.
Oh, that's dope He had seen me in high school and he was like me my nephew really is into this architecture.
Yeah construction thing And I was working for a real estate developer at the time and I'm like I designed houses.
Yeah, you know, and I'm like
17, you know, 18 years old.
I'm like, no, uncle, I designed a house.
It's really like, let me build you a house.
And he looked at me, he was like, OK, let's do it.
Yeah.
You know, I was like, oh, for real?
Like, you know, and he trusted me, I designed and built his house and he was my first client.
So just that memory, you know, family believing in you.
I think that's huge, right?
When we're giving an opportunity.
Absolutely.
You know, then we can yield results, right?
That was a cornerstone in my foundation to what now has become
you know, $250 million plus of real estate development experience over 600 housing units I've done in my 22-year career.
Come on now.
Wait,
slow it down.
Hold on.
You can't breathe.
You can't just breathe over that.
Come on.
Go ahead.
Break it down for us one more time.
Yeah, so I've been involved in about a quarter billion dollars of real estate transactions, completed real estate transactions, and over 600 housing units in my 22 year career.
And that's not including the stuff that we have actively going right now.
But it all started from two things.
I mentioned a training program in high school, taking my life series at 16 years old, knowing what I wanted to do.
And also,
people reaching out to me as a 16 year old.
Like, hey, you know, there's this opportunity, come to the library, you know, for lunch one day.
That's literally how it happened for me.
And then two, my uncle saying, hey, I believe in you.
All right.
And then three, I didn't even mention this earlier, but I was working for a black woman, you know, and she believed in me.
Like, yeah, bless you design.
You know, I'm a body of software for you to design and I'm a little architect.
You know what I mean?
But she saw like, hey, this is a young black boy that is really passionate about this.
I'm going to invest in them.
And that is what we need.
And the greatest takeaway that, as far as my point of view, especially for the youth who are listening, is you did half of the work.
You believe in yourself first.
That's why I tell my students, like, I can't want more for you than you want for yourself, right?
So if you have a way to, if you start by determining what it is that you want to do.
And then when you do that, everything else will align.
Everything else will come
to you.
Like, his story, to me, sounds like it was all laid out for you to become successful.
Yeah.
Yeah, I feel the same way, and I feel like I'm just walking to my purpose.
You know, seriously.
I feel like God has given me a gift.
He's given me the blessings, the opportunity, the connections.
I have a responsibility to do something with it.
Absolutely.
You know?
So, you know, talking to the youth, exposing...
you know, the youth to my industry.
A lot of people don't know what a real estate developer is, you know, or, you know, what an architect does or engineer, et cetera.
And, you know, how you can, I said the term earlier, family sustaining jobs, how you can literally sustain, you know, a family, right?
And have that shift.
I'm
sorry the award-winning one on one point seven issues at the American family insurance studio in the beautiful heart of downtown Milwaukee We got some special guests in the building team morgan tomb, baby and see money what it do.
What's the word?
Yeah, listen, so
One of the things I want to talk about, and I know that you guys can relate, I just came back home in November.
I just moved back.
And I always find myself coming back, right?
It's like the second time I came back.
And I come back because as much as I love other places, there's no place like home.
And I just want Milwaukee to get to a point where we don't feel like we can't be successful and be here at the same time.
Watching both of you, you guys' journey, including mine, I've seen the work that y'all have done.
I've seen what you've done with trying to bring resources back to the city, right?
Do you feel like the city is appreciative of that, or do you feel like we still have a long way
to
go?
I
mean, heck no.
No, I'ma say it like this, right?
It's kinda like, I was a young parent.
Like, unfortunately, me and my brother lost our father young, right?
So that put me in parent mode young, right?
Yeah.
So everybody that really, really knows, know I slick raised him since he was a child, right?
Yeah.
Pretty much.
He was 10.
So check it out.
Rest
in peace.
Rest in peace, bro.
You gon' get that, but you gotta still deal with it because it's your responsibility, though, right?
Yeah.
Like, I don't do no tripping about nobody feeling like a...
Oh, dog might be trying to get me.
Oh, dog might be trying to, you know.
Yeah.
That's what my kid is going to say.
Yeah.
Right.
But I'm a steal, be there for him and show them.
Right.
So they can't never say I ain't did it.
Everybody saw me do it.
Yeah.
You know, like I was a guy at Playmaker selling the cheddar DVDs out of 600 benzes and stuff.
So this is a real thing.
This ain't fake.
Like I learned how to do marketing by doing it, though.
Yeah,
right.
Like really just taking the initiatives to put it down.
So I'm saying, you know, my history ain't no mystery.
Like you said, you know me.
So everything I'm going to say, y'all could tell these kids, I ain't got to tell them nothing.
Like your homes ain't playing like this document and you can see this, right?
So we just provide opportunities, right?
With the no nonsense mentoring.
Yeah.
We just provide, you know, that like internships, like how you got the young lady helping back and forth.
Like we're doing that as well, you know, across the world.
Because with the coalition DJs, we have different chapters, right?
Yeah.
So we can position a kid from Milwaukee that's going to school somewhere else and say, Hey, is it text message for me?
Right?
You know what I'm saying?
So I can do that.
So if we can get the children to understand that it's real, they'll take the chance and do
it.
And it ain't going to do nothing but help them.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that one of the reasons why I love doing this and me and Meesh talk about this all the time is because y'all know the history here.
We don't really have a culture where they're accepted to allowing our people like the real culture.
you know, come in and do interviews and things of that nature.
But I always talk about to our peers how much we have to start educating like those who are in these positions.
We have to start
educating the youth on
who
did what before they started doing it so that they will understand when the opportunities come.
They're not coming from a random person.
They're coming from somebody.
We was doing this before Instagram and Twitter.
So a lot of stuff, unless you got a cheddar DVD or something like that, we weren't able to really capture.
You know what I'm saying?
So we have to begin to show them
what you said it made me think right because I Remember going back and forth with my realm like put Tony on a cover.
Yeah, he like Why right?
He let me see is like why like who is this nigga?
I'm like, trust me.
Yeah,
right I knew Tony had just bucked on 50 them with the young buck.
I mean
Excuse me.
Young buck stuff, right?
Yeah.
So I knew that was circulating in the industry, right?
But like you say, it wasn't online or nobody knew this, but I knew this, right?
So when I turn buddy on the homes, we walking in the ARJs, he don't even want to meet you
at all.
Right?
This is East Coast nigga.
He don't think nothing of the town for real, for real.
Like, you know, so.
Oh, my bad, Woody.
So OK, so when I get homes.
In the club to meet him, right?
You know Tony went to pop in it on you, right?
He knocked him cold.
So I was like, he kept saying the name.
We walk it off.
Like, yeah, I told you.
So longer to short, he still wasn't budging on the cover move though.
I forced that.
Now by me doing the coalition stuff, I'm able to meet a lot of people in the industry that you normally wouldn't meet because they behind the scenes folks.
They don't need they don't want no fans.
Right.
So they telling me how they know a nigga like.
I mean, excuse me, I know a guy like Tony, right?
They saying, yo, I seen him on this.
But they don't even know I was doing that.
Yeah.
So I'm like, wow, I really was helping in a real way.
But that was like my first rodeo to being able to tell somebody from the East Coast to help us.
Right.
But I was helping him.
Right.
Like, you know, like when I asked him to do the design, you know, I'm saying for the Magnum to real design that.
Yeah.
Right.
You know what I'm saying?
And I, you know, through my.
Marketing ways I got it wrapped right
for a
swap.
So we did a commercial for them and we got the Magnum wrap, right?
So it was a free, you know, but I knew it could work.
So when I left Milwaukee, I wasn't doing no tripping because I knew I really knew what to do,
right?
So now we able to just make it be what it's supposed to and we don't got nobody in the way.
You know, I'm saying, you know who I am.
You know what's happening with me.
So.
I mean, it's just like that right now.
Yeah,
that
part of it, not the gatekeepers,
right?
Right.
That's one of the problems with, I believe, with our city, is that you have a lot of
gatekeepers.
Yeah, push your mic up, T.
We have a lot of gatekeepers that don't necessarily support our...
genuine organic culture.
If it's not posed in position in a certain light, ah, they hood, ah, they ghetto, ah, they not ready.
Where the reality is that this person is highly, highly intelligent.
You have no idea who this person is, but because they speak a certain way, or they dress a certain way, you pass judgment, you don't allow them to enter into doors, or you may not.
introduce them to certain people that can actually push their career because of the way they look.
And they're an actual reflection of what Milwaukee looks like.
Absolutely.
Not that Milwaukee, but the real Milwaukee.
Right.
And so once we start peeling off all these lenses of stereotype and malice and judgment and greed, then we can really start to grow.
You know, we lead with love.
You know, we grow.
You know, we get rid of old ways.
And we do things that are truly beneficial for the future.
You know, cause that's what we have.
Like once we get older, it's going to be the future, the youth that's going to take care of us.
And if we don't put loving arms around them, they will put cold hands on us.
I keep talking about that.
Like that's why I pour so much into them.
I
pour so much into
them because
they're going to be the ones running this city almost 40.
I have two adult children and I'm looking at their peers and I'm like, ain't no way.
I'm gonna let y'all take care of me.
But instead of me stepping back, you know what I'm saying?
I step
up and to be honest, they need it.
They do need
it.
They want it from us.
The reason why they're doing what they're doing is because they're getting it from people who they can't relate to.
You know what I'm saying?
People that don't come from where they come from that don't look
like.
how they look.
And when you look at just the state overall, look how long it even took for some of us to get in these positions.
Oh, yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
Oh, yeah.
We all know what the reality of our history is.
We're not going to turn a blind eye to all the difference.
I feel like we are our
own biggest enemy, though, in certain aspects, though.
Absolutely.
My dream.
Because, I mean... You remember Samuel L. Jackson and Django?
Yeah.
Absolutely.
OK.
You got a lot of those out here.
Because it's a lot of people who feel like it's only enough.
But you know, the more I do what I do, the more I start to remember my calling and my purpose,
and
one thing's for show, two things for certain.
What God gave me can't be bought, and it can't be replicated.
Absolutely.
You
can take the recipe, but it ain't gonna taste the same.
Exactly.
Bars.
Look, T.O.
Point, right?
That's crazy you say that.
I was just telling them around that, you know...
A lot of this stuff, like even public speaking, right?
I just, I don't do it, right?
And because it's you, I did it though.
For real, for real.
And because of who I'm bringing.
Yeah.
I believe in them.
Yeah.
You get what I'm saying?
So I take it.
No,
but it's but it's but I thank you for that And it's needed it's needed because we never get to hear like this is it's time You know what I mean?
Like we have to like where the adults the unks and paintings we have to start documenting
100% You know what I mean because now we're living in a society that's social media based so a lot of the work that we put in It was pre social media.
However, it doesn't take away from what we've done.
So now we just have to double, you know, run it back.
Absolutely.
Reposition it.
Exactly.
So that they can see it.
Y'all got any shout outs before we get out of here?
I want to just shout out, you know, the city of Milwaukee
You know, shout out UJ, you know what I mean, Jazz?
Shout out street politicians, shout out my Savannah folks, you know?
Shout out Black Arts Fest, Anitra Riley, shout out, you know, I love my people, shout out, you know?
Coalition Milwaukee, shout out Meach, you know?
Shout out, you know, Heathen, you know?
Shout out to
Coalition DJ, shout
out to my
sister T, shout out
to you, shout out
to my folks, sister Savannah, shout out to my sister, to me and that dude.
Shout out to ScreamPolitician, I love Scream.
Shout
out to all the coalition DJs from here to Tennessee, to Atlanta, to wherever they all feel.
I know
that's right.
All over
it.
Shout out to the West Side of Savannah.
We here.
Yes, indeed.
I just want
to shout out to my sister Tone Mama.
She been working real hard to get to where she at now.
I want to shout out to her manager for pushing her to her full potential.
Shout out to her kids because she do this for them.
We love them dearly.
I love her and I work
with her.
Real popes.
You know, I like the girl, you know, so close.
She's very nice.
And, uh, Sally, right?
Yeah.
You know, he's super hard.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, he just did a song with my round, uh, Ta-Jay.
Like, we've been helping him through our Dallas Chapel, right?
Yeah.
So Ta-Jay come through.
He got a nice hit record that they've been pushing on TikTok.
Yeah.
So hopefully that song does well.
I'm excited to hear what they got going.
But that's what it's about, like.
The guy who brought him who he signed to, I helped him get a cash money deal.
Like, this is stuff that really went on.
That
happened before COVID though.
So that artist, you know, he didn't really have the patience and he, you know, he's a young dude having his own paper.
So he took himself off the label.
So, you know, now he got a new artist and we gonna see what he made of.
So he gonna double back, come party with y'all and kick it.
That's what it's about.
I want to shout out to the town of Milwaukee County for real.
Like,
this
is a real
thing, guys and girls.
Yes, indeed.
Yes, indeed.
Hey, man, listen, I'm from Atlanta, but I've been slipping from them.
Bow one, bow two.
Shout out to
Georgia.
Shout out to the A. Shout out to Milwaukee.
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