Perspectives: The Real Estate Accelerator Lab – Part One

The Real Estate Accelerator Lab (REAL) kicked off in October 2019 with its first class of 26 emerging professionals, including The Port's Michael Golden. For the next few months, Michael will be providing his takeaways and perspectives throughout the program.

I joined The Port a little over a year ago as a Real Estate Development Associate. With a background in community planning and policy, I applied for the REAL Program to expand my knowledge of development and leverage my skill set to act as a resource for others. One of my favorite quotes is, "you can't be what you can't see" by Marian Wright Edelman. I'm hopeful to see a broader range of people involved in real estate; it's so critical to building generational wealth and inclusive housing options. The more we can expand the real estate world, the more examples we will have of paths to get involved in development to encourage others to get into the game.

Image of Michael Golden

One of my favorite quotes is, "you can't be what you can't see." I'm hopeful to see a broader range of people involved in real estate; it's so critical to building generational wealth and inclusive housing options.

Going into the program, I have two main goals:

1. I'm interested in the human aspect of development. I interact with so many people through my work, and part of development is leveraging resources and funds. I want to start building a network across diverse areas of expertise and leverage those relationships to work with The Port and continue to build generational wealth.

2. I also want to be a resource for others, sharing what I learn to allow more people of color to permeate into the development world. I love engaging with a wide range of people and making those connections to resources to continue to make Cincinnati a better place for everyone.

The first session focused on an introduction to development and our unique value propositions as developers. How do we talk about our work? What passions and skillsets do we bring to the table?

Here are just a couple of my key takeaways from the first REAL session:

1. There is no one path to become involved in real estate development

Every presenter starts with a description of their origin story. There is a lot of diversity across REAL board members, and hearing how they became involved in real estate highlighted that there is no straight path; there are a multitude of access points. Some became involved through finance, others by buying and rehabbing properties. Everyone can be a developer, and everyone brings something different to the table.

2. Development is an art, not a science

Just as there is no one path to get involved in development, there is no one definition. Every developer has a different meaning. Development is risk management, community advocacy, customer service, connecting resources, problem-solving, and so much more. Developers have to be optimistic and resilient in making a project work and making big ideas a reality.

Over the next seven months, I'm looking forward to seeing more facets of development and continuing to craft my unique value proposition in the development world. Next month, we are taking a look at how development impacts communities and continuing work on m-TAPs.