53206 is significant to Melissa Nicole Allen.
To outsiders, the zip code identifies one of the most troubled areas in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To Allen, it’s foundational to her identity.
Born and raised near the Amani neighborhood, Allen saw firsthand how residents were affected by high incarceration and scarce educational opportunities.
“It’s what I knew,” she tells ESSENCE. “It’s home,” Allen says. The environment helped propel her to strive for success in school and earn multiple degrees, including an MBA. But even after building an enviable career as a successful commercial real estate developer later in life, she still calls Milwaukee home and often does business around the area she grew up in. Allen founded Maures Development Group LLC in 2006 and has been a transformative force in Milwaukee’s real estate landscape for nearly 20 years.
To date, Allen’s firm has invested over $100 million and developed 400+ housing units, revitalizing areas that traditional developers have long overlooked. This is a feat since Black women are grossly underrepresented in real estate development, making up less than 1% of senior commercial real estate executives.
Although she has been laser-focused on revitalizing Milwaukee’s urban landscape, surprisingly, her path was non-linear. Before setting her sights on real estate development, Allen was once on the track to work for the CIA after working as a correctional officer for years. However, she shifted course when, in 2004, she participated in a program that introduced her to the impact of commercial real estate development and intentional urban planning. Greatly inspired, just two years later, Allen launched Maures Development, whose name is a homophone for Moors—an influential group of Black people that played a role in establishing Europe in the Middle Ages.
This was deliberate, as Allen’s guiding philosophy is “leveraging bricks and mortar to bring pride and hope to people” while putting Black communities at the center of it all.
Allen’s latest point of pride project is the development of Bronzeville Estates, a large-scale housing unit. She secured the deal from Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority a few years prior.
The project was inspired by Bronzeville, a once-booming cultural and economic hub for Milwaukee’s African-American community that the city’s government upended in the late 1960s. Now, Allen says this is her way of paying homage to the neighborhood.
“Bronzeville has been a centerpiece for me,” she tells ESSENCE. Maures Development will celebrate the Bronzeville Estates’ official grand opening in April.
“I’ve been at this for 20 years,” she says. “In 20 years, Brownsville Estates is the first development where I am the lead and sole developer, which is very significant. I’ve had partners along the way in my other portfolios.”
She points out that the accomplishment is almost poetic, as it is the culmination of all her efforts as a catalyst for Black upward mobility in Milwaukee. As a product of one of the city’s most underserved neighborhoods, her work is dedicated to showing people like her that they’re worthy of more.
“Over time, I realized that everything — and this is a lesson to Black women— is that we need to take all of who we are and all of our experiences into any space that we go into because everything we encounter is what makes us powerful beyond measure.”