Kevin Shabazz

Kevin was born and raised in the Bronx and grew up in subsidized housing, in apartments where paint chipped off the walls and there was no central ventilation. He never forgot what it felt like to live in a building nobody was investing in, or who tended to live in them.

He studied entrepreneurship at Norfolk State University, then spent years in New York real estate before answering that memory with two organizations, both founded in 2016: Greene Developers, a certified Minority Business Enterprise focused on transforming vacant and underutilized land into sustainable, community-centered developments, and the New Leadership Academy, a 501(c)(3) devoted to education, workforce development, and community advancement. For Kevin, the two have never been separate. Who builds the neighborhood matters as much as what gets built.

Greene Developers is a real estate development and community development firm focused on transforming vacant and underutilized land into sustainable housing and mixed-use communities. The firm's work includes affordable and workforce housing, homeownership, mixed-use development, master-planned communities, and community-serving commercial and recreational spaces.

A central part of Greene Developers' strategy is forming public-private partnerships with municipalities, public agencies, landowners, community organizations, and institutional partners to unlock underutilized land and create developments that combine housing with broader community benefits. The firm's growing multi-state pipeline includes development opportunities throughout New York, Colorado, and Ohio, ranging from affordable and workforce homeownership and mixed-use housing to larger land and master-planned development opportunities.

The other half of the mission is education and workforce development. The Greene Developers Learning Lab introduces students to careers in real estate development, construction, sustainability, urban planning, architecture, engineering, entrepreneurship, and community development. Through hands-on development simulations, students learn how to become real estate developers, and the broader platform connects classroom learning with industry-recognized credentials, mentorship, exposure to real estate professionals, and paid work-based learning.

A paid internship program developed through partnerships with CUNY and Lehman College gives college students from underserved communities the opportunity to work directly on live real estate and community development projects, gaining practical experience in land acquisition, due diligence, development feasibility, community engagement, sustainability, and real estate ownership.

Kevin is scaling both sides of the mission. On the development side, Greene Developers is expanding a multi-state pipeline while building deeper relationships with municipalities, public agencies, institutional capital partners, community organizations, and experienced development partners. The long-term objective is to transform underutilized land into sustainable communities that create housing, homeownership opportunities, economic activity, and lasting community assets.

On the education side, Kevin is building a comprehensive Built Environment Career Pathway that allows students to learn how communities are actually planned, financed, developed, built, and operated, combining real-world development education with industry-recognized credentials in areas such as sustainability and construction safety, along with mentorship, professional exposure, paid work-based learning, and internships. The goal is to expand the program throughout New York City and ultimately into additional markets.

The through line is ownership: giving communities not only a voice in development, but the knowledge, relationships, skills, and opportunities necessary to participate in the industry themselves.