Mia Rogers

I want to see more people from the communities that need investment working in this industry.

Equitable development means that you are not just building and revitalizing property but also helping people to eat, play, and live well in their communities. We work with the city of Baltimore to hire local residents. This is my equitable movement contribution–employing people that are deemed unemployable so they can reinvest in themselves, their families, and neighborhoods.

Thibault Manekin

Developers have to be orchestra conductors that quietly let everyone shine, enabling ideas to stick, allowing projects to take root.

A social entrepreneur is someone whose main focus is on making society better and who can creatively think of out-of-the-box ways to go about doing that. For us, that’s through real estate. We don’t want to be thought of as developers. We want to be thought of as a company that uses the built environment to help make cities better places to live, work and play — both by the projects we develop and most importantly by the people we put in them. Developers have to be orchestra conductors that quietly let everyone shine, enabling ideas to stick, allowing projects to take root.

The story of Miller’s Court demonstrates our philosophy of listening and making sure that the people who will reside in the space that we built are part of the decision making process. A bunch of teachers working in schools in the area approached us saying they wanted to live where they taught but had challenges finding apartments. They also said that they would like to lean on each other as teachers even when we’re not in school.  And so when we decided to work with the teachers to create an affordable apartment complex, we knew that it would be more than just a place for teachers to rest their heads.  The teachers designed every inch of the building; they chose their own amenities. As a result, the LEED Gold Certified building includes lots of meeting spaces and a resource center for the teachers, office spaces for non-profits, and a cooperatively owned independent cafe in the building.

A good developer knows that the end user must ultimately decide what gets built. It’s the community that’s been staring at the dilapidated building for decades or envisioning what can be built on the vacant lot in the neighborhood. They are the ones who will live with the developed sites for generations to come. To be a good developer, you must fall back and really listen.