Inc. Magazine: Real Estate Developer Cedric Franklin

[darwinism]

Does anyone have any direct experience working with Cedric Franklin, who runs Harley Stanfield ?

Inc. Magazine did a full feature on him and his investments in Detroit.

Link to article

[crawford]

He sounds like a smart guy, but I don't understand really anything he says about Detroit.

For one, Detroit couldn't have a more different real estate market than college towns. The two models are nothing alike.

For another, Detroit does not have any Empowerment Zones. I seriously hope he was misquoted.

Finally, I don't understand what he means when he says he's going to fill his Detroit homes with poor folks. Poor folks have choices like everyone else, and they now have opportunities in the burbs. Everyone in Detroit is chasing the same shrinking pool of poor folks [[shrinking because they are leaving for the burbs or going down South).

The only "poor folks" demographic that isn't shrinking is the Section 8 voucher demographic, but those are already locked in by existing Detroit landlords. A new landlord isn't going to be able to access the very tight availability of Sec. 8 vouchers [[not to mention there's a federal freeze on new vouchers).

But he sounds smart and successful, so I assume he has a good idea about what he's getting into.

[MIRepublic]

For another, Detroit does not have any Empowerment Zones. I seriously hope he was misquoted.

Really? Are you sure?