Transcriber: Sean Hollis Reviewer: Walaa Mohammed
[Intro Music]
[Clapping]
My real estate journey started at this small house that we see
on this screen in a neighborhood called Byrd Station here in Baton Rouge.
I purchased this first home for $11k,
put another $15k into the rehab,
rented this property out for $650 a month.
And truth be told after my tenants stopped paying our rent consistently. After a year
I sold it for $3540k made a solid profit. I was 25 years old.
But truth be told, that wasn't the whole story when it came to this property.
What breathing life into this old house did for me, was show
the impact that real estate development not only has on the built environment,
but the impact it has on the families,
the kids who live in that home, and the community as a whole.
Over the last ten years, I've continued to do work in neighborhoods similar to
Byrd Station. This work led me to create my company, Kimball Properties,
and also led me to raise multiple fund vehicles through group economics,
such as the Buyback Baton Rouge Fund that has invested over $5 million into both
the South Baton Rouge and Scotlandville communities.
[Clapping]
This is what our portfolio looks like today,
mainly focused on South Baton Rouge commercial buildings,
multifamily buildings, couple sprinkled downtown,
couple sprinkled in Scotlandville.
This work and these properties we’ve built over the last 3 or 4 years.
These are some of the buildings we own, up top Electric Depot,
and our office at legacy on 14th Street are buildings that are in commerce.
When you look down bottom at Hotel Lincoln and
the building we own at 1440 government, these are buildings,
that are in development currently.
When you guys look at me, you probably look at me as just
a real estate developer doing work in the hood or buying back the block.
But we look at our work as so much more than that.
We look at our work as an opportunity to bring positive impact
and hope to communities that have been forgotten for far too long.
We look at our work as an opportunity to give access to capital to communities
that have been disconnected from
the American dream through intentional policy and the investment.
We look at our work as an opportunity to reconnect ecosystems within communities
and get the dollar flowing in communities that have been stricken by crime,
by poverty, by the war on drugs,
and by the flight of people with resources to more desirable suburban neighborhoods.
Truth be told, our work isn’t easy,
and there’s not a lot of instant gratification that comes with our work.
But this work is meaningful to me because
I was once one of those kids in one of these forgotten neighborhoods.
Growing up in inner city Baton Rouge in the 90s,
I saw firsthand the challenges that these neighborhoods have, broken infrastructure,
lack of sidewalks, blight and burnt homes that were not touched for years.
Trash is literally dumped on the side of the road and nothing done about it.
These were just the visible signs.
Also, many folks within these communities, like my parents, were renters,
so there wasn't a ton of home ownership within these communities.
A big part of my journey, I realized, and my success,
was due to my parents who are here today that I’m forever grateful for
and their dedication to me getting a quality education
and being surrounded by a solid network because I realize without those things,
I could have remained one of those kids in this forgotten community.
Reality. Growing up, I didn't realize
the stark contrast between these neglected communities that we had called
home and the well maintained suburbs.
Until we moved to the suburbs, things looked totally different.
Newly paved streets, sidewalks, trash picked up promptly.
You actually saw for sale signs in front of homes.
And you saw new families moving in and out of the neighborhood.
So, meaning there was transactions happening.
These things do a great deal for the value of your property and
the value of your home.
Growing up,
you just look at these things and these disparities, like it’s coincidence.
Or, you know, as a kid, you just want to have fun and it is what it is.
But as I grew older through conversations with my elders, through education,
I realized this just wasn't coincidental.
Also in these same conversations,
I realized some of these neglected and forgotten communities were once great.
They once were thriving. They once were very vibrant.
If you look at the history of a lot of our inner city black neighborhoods,
starting at the Civil War, going into the 20th century,
you see thriving communities. We were building our own banks.
We were building our own businesses. We had our own life insurance companies.
And the reality of this is it had to be that way because of segregation.
We were building culture. We were building community.
But the reality in many instances, most instances, this was short lived.
As you continue to move into the 20th century,
you see practices and policies such as Jim Crow and
the New Deal literally set a foundation for the exclusion of African Americans.
It's important to talk about these issues and these problems
and confront them head on.
When you're talking about building solutions to turn
the tide within these communities.
One of the biggest barriers in these African American communities for
the last 60 or 70 years has been access to capital.
The majority of capital in this country historically has been held in white banks.
And as we just talked about, there was literally policies
and laws that excluded these banks from lending to black businesses
or in black communities.
At the same time, you saw the creation of government backed mortgages.
We were also excluded from those.
So when you look at the lack of access to capital,
the lack of access to government backed mortgages,
if you wanted to buy a home in these communities or even rehab your home,
it had to be done out of pocket.
What this did was keep prices in these communities stagnant for decades.
Adding insult to injuries moving into the 50s and 60s in this country,
you literally start seeing freeways being built through
the heart of communities South Baton Rouge , Tremé and New Orleans.
Third Ward in Houston, Oak Cliff and Dallas are just examples of thriving
black communities that literally you saw freeways built through
the middle of them. What this literally did was destroy the fabric of
the community.
Even at times when we fought for policy for the betterment of our community,
such as desegregation, it had ill intent, well,
unexpected consequences on our community.
It was our right to be able to shop everywhere.
We literally had played a great role in building this country.
But the reality, one of those unintended consequences of desegregation was those
black businesses lost a loyal customer base, and these businesses began to fail.
So you look at the lack of access to capital.
You look at freeways, you look at businesses start to fail.
Moving into the 70s, 80s and 90s.
You start to see the war on drugs
and mass incarceration removed black men from the home.
What this left was broken families and broken communities.
At the same time in this country in regards to housing policy was starting to
change. Black folks, 80s, 70s, 80s, 90s.
You start being able to move to the suburbs.
The reality was still at this time you couldn't get a mortgage,
usually in one of these inner city urban neighborhoods or black neighborhoods.
So getting the mortgage, getting a bigger house,
moving to the suburbs many times was your only option.
But the reality of that this led to black flight of middle and
affluent blacks to the suburbs that further stripped these neighborhoods
of resources. When you look at it many times,
the only time these folks would return were to get haircuts, to go to church,
or maybe visit family. Literally,
the goal of our community became to get out and never look back.
The reality that could have been my story,
but understanding the issues that face these neighborhoods was what led us to
try to change this narrative through the work we're doing.
But through understanding these issues,
we understood our work couldn't solely be about the buildings,
but it had to be about the people.
Understanding the issues that face these neighborhoods,
we understand we had to use group economics to pool money together to give
access to capital.
We understood that it had been decades before,
since kids that have been forgotten in this neighborhood had positive role
models or things to aspire to.
The folks that they had seen as successful rappers, athletes,
drug dealers. So it was important for the work we do and
for myself to not only move my home,
but my business into the heart of South Baton Rouge.
To give these kids another example.
And give these kids something different to aspire to. Let's let's be truthful.
We all know what a thriving neighborhood is.
It's usually where we want to live or we want to raise our kids.
You see successful businesses, you see job opportunities.
You see public and private investment that happens in these neighborhoods.
You see the dollar circulating multiple times in these neighborhoods before it
leaves. That's all we're looking to recreate in communities like
Scotlandville and South Baton Rouge. And it's happened before.
But what we do realize we're only a seat at the table.
It's going to take a holistic approach to turn the tide in these neighborhoods
and make them great again.
When you look at the intentionality of policy and lending practice,
coupled with the billions of dollars spent on things like freeway,
you're kidding yourself. If you think we're going to throw pennies of that at
that and be able to solve that problem,
it's going to take that same level of intentionality and spending to turn
the tides in these communities. Some thought the suburbs would save them.
Some thought gated communities would shield them from crime.
When you look at Baton Rouge today, that's not our reality.
So that's why it's so important for us to be part of that change,
because we realize investing in these forgotten neighborhoods is investing in
our city as a whole.
The biggest investment we make as
a city in these communities can't be in law enforcement.
Let's be honest, the lack of police is not what got these neighborhoods to where
they are today.
[Clapping]
With that said, I’m excited to continue to work because we’re still on this journey.
to continue building a neighborhood that accommodates all people,
and I invite you to do the same.
Thank you.
[Clapping]