MILWAUKEE — Kevin Newell is on a mission to change lives through urban development as the President and CEO of the Royal Capital Group.
"The thing that we have going on is the ability to be traditional in the sense of doing business, but have our business impact our community, have our business impact the things we care about," said Newell.
Newell is a product of Milwaukee Public Schools and got his start at Phillis Wheatley Elementary School. Ironically, he ended up being the driving force behind the project that would later turn it into affordable housing.
"I understand what unstable housing looks like. I moved 14 times from the time I got here to Milwaukee to the time I went to college," said Newell.
Speaking of college, after graduating from Custer High School, he attended UW-Whitewater and studied business and finance. He also finished at the top of a nine-month professional training program at Marquette.
"The most critical element of me being able to pursue urban development in a capacity that I am now, started off with me getting an acceptance in the Marquette ACRE program," said Newell.
He also credits his mom, who moved here from Mississippi and in his words "made a way out of nothing."
"It starts with my mom. My mom is the most important and significant role model that I've ever had," said Newell.
Newell is also a role model in many ways. He was the first African American to build and own a multifamily commercial development in downtown Milwaukee and through a partnership with the Milwaukee Bucks, he's also the first African American to partner with an NBA team to develop a commercial entertainment district with Five Fifty Ultra Lofts.
"As a kid, I always dreamed about making it to the NBA, being on NBA.com, but I didn't make it to the NBA website in a more traditional sense, but I did make it because of the real estate development work we're doing," said Newell.
His latest project is something he's extremely proud of.
"This is the epitome of what I like to say of collaboration is a new innovation," he said.
TMJ4's Andrea Williams made a visit to the site of that project.
"I'm standing on the original marble floor of what was the Shuster Department Store, which was founded back in 1883. This is now the site of the new Thrive On King," said Williams.
"So, us being able to have a vision and work alongside other visionaries at the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, and others and be able to say, 'hey, we want to do a generational impact investment and we want to put it on MLK,'" said Newell.
The 400,000-square-foot building will serve as residential housing for seniors and families, house a cafe, and a neighborhood hall and invest in educational components. Greater Milwaukee Foundation and the Medical College will also use space to further their mission of bringing economic and social benefit to communities of color disproportionately affected by disparities.
"We have to continue to multiply these lifestyle campuses across this city, across this region, across this nation, but there's really going to be no better demonstration than what we're doing right here in Milwaukee," said Newell.
