Create the Village

Access to capital, powerful networks and seasoned mentors often determine who gets to build and who gets sidelined. In the Season 3 finale of Create the Village, Integral’s Daryl Jones sits down with Brandon Rule, founder of Rule Enterprises, for a candid look at what it really takes to transform an opportunity into a viable deal. Brandon shares his journey from quitting his banking job at 23 to l...

America is aging, and fast. In just a few years, millions will enter their 80s, many without the resources or support systems to age with dignity. Yet affordable assisted living remains misunderstood, underfunded, and dangerously overlooked. In this episode of Create the Village, Daryl Jones (President, Real Estate Acquisitions) sits down with Julie Simpkins, co-CEO of Gardant Management Solutions...

Essential workers are the backbone of our communities, yet too many are being priced out of safe, attainable housing near where they work. Rents have climbed faster than wages for years, creating an unsustainable gap that leaves millions of teachers, nurses, first responders, and other essential workers stuck in the “missing middle.” They earn too much to qualify for subsidies yet not enough to af...

Community development isn’t just about bricks and mortar. It’s about people, honoring legacy, addressing structural inequities, and building trust block by block, relationship by relationship. Few places reflect that truth more than Atlanta’s historic Westside. In this episode of Create the Village, guest host Shannon Judd, President of Integral Property Management, sits down with Rachel Carey, Ch...

In Atlanta, the racial wealth gap is staggering. The average white household holds 46 times more wealth than the average Black household. One major reason is homeownership, and who gets to buy a home. If we want cities that are truly inclusive and resilient, bold new approaches are needed to help families build wealth and stay in place. This episode explores one such solution: permanently affordab...

Impact investors provide the last dollars to unlock attainable housing. Many promising housing projects get close to the finish line and then stall because the last dollars aren’t there. This episode looks at a practical fix: bring mission-minded funders and public partners to the table to cover the remaining costs so homes can actually get built. Host Ade Sanusi, Vice President, Asset & Inves...

Developers don’t just need better plans, they need workflows that line up from plan to permit. Homebuilding still runs on disconnected files and manual redlines. Design changes don’t reach sales, purchasing, or the field in time, creating RFIs, delays, and budget creep. Host Jordan Jones, Principal – Integral Carolinas and Marc Minor, Co-Founder & CEO, Higharc, unpack a design-to-build approac...

Lasting change in communities starts with the right connections. In this week’s Create the Village, Kareem Brantley, Principal - Integral Florida, hosts a powerful conversation with two leaders driving equity and opportunity in real estate: Kenasha Paul, founder and CEO of the Black Professionals Network (BPN), and Chad Musgrove, Sr. Vice President at M&T Bank and President of the Black Real E...

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲—𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝘀? In episode 2 of 𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘦, Jordan Jones, Principal – Integral Carolinas, talks with Hasier Larrea, CEO of Ori, to explore how rethinking square footage can unlock  attainable housing. They break down how Ori’s adaptable, tech-enabled designs - beds that rise, closets that flex, and walls that move -...

Art and culture aren’t just creative expressions — they’re powerful tools for building communities that thrive. In this episode of Create the Village, renowned artist and scholar Dr. Fahamu Pecou explores how cultural spaces like the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta (ADAMA) preserve heritage, strengthen identity, and drive equitable development. From addressing the wealth gap to creating inc...

A year ago, we published an episode of Create the Village entitled, “Has ‘Infrastructure Week’ Finally Arrived?” There was plenty of conversation, rolling into a national election, that supported the idea that the time had finally come…that after years of neglect and procrastinating, Washington was ready to enact a massive program to address crumbling highways, a patchwork of high-speed internet a...

In the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, Dr. Calvin Mackie was appointed to the 33-member board of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. In 2009, he was appointed to the Louisiana Council on the Social Status of Black Boys and Black Men. Recently, Mackie was appointed to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority Board. In 2014, Dr. Mackie founded STEM NOLA, a non-profit organization...

Sherri Powell founded the Rural America Chamber of Commerce in 2021. She's working to empower rural entrepreneurs and to advocate for their economies and communities, and she's not stopping there. Not afraid to dig into the real issues, she's helping them talk about things like racism in America.

Deidre Woollard, an Editor at Million Acres, a division of Motley Fool, returns to Create The Village to discuss the ongoing market confusion and looming problems facing the real estate and banking industries and local and state governments.

President and chief executive officer of the YMCA of Metro Atlanta, Lauren Koontz, discusses her leadership in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and period of national racial awareness.

This week’s episode of Create the Village is a potent conversation about some of the issues of inequality facing the U.S. and some of the policy initiatives designed to raise awareness. Linda Goler Blount is President and CEO of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, the only national organization focused on Black women’s emotional, physical and financial health and wellness. After one year of pande...

Mary Means is an award-winning community planner and innovator who has led the movement in Main Street Revitalization for more than four decades. She has been dubbed the  Queen of Main Street by her colleagues and industry leaders. Today, Mary is a popular conference speaker and continues to help public interest clients envision and build consensus to make their communities better places to live a...

Guest: John O’Callaghan, President and CEO of Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP). Atlanta is famous for the ebb and flow of its real estate market. And, while some parts of the metro area are certainly doing well, some parts of the market are still feeling the impact of the 2008 foreclosure crisis. Atlanta is famous for the ebb and flow of its real estate market. And, while some p...

This week's episode of Create the Village asks the question, “Are we living through a temporary bubble where low-income children stop attending school or underperform, or are we seeing a trend that will live with us for decades?” Jill Barshay and Egbert Perry discuss the barriers to educational attainment for children from modest-income households during the pandemic and the lasting impact of a lo...

Egbert Perry, CEO of Integral, and Hollis Towns, VP of local news at Gannett, discuss the recent Georgia special election, the assault on the US Capitol, and what the public can expect from media companies during this era.

Susan K. Thomas, president of the Melville Charitable Trust, where she oversees the Trust’s grantmaking strategy, philanthropic partnerships and administration.

We’re living in the midst of a technological revolution and the Digital Divide is leaving millions behind. Autumn Glover, an urban planner passionate about “The Intersection of Race, Place and Health” joined Egbert Perry on this week’s episode of Create the Village. Also joining the conversation was Eric Pinckney, the Project Executive responsible for the implementation of Assembly in Doraville, G...

Edward Golding, Executive Director of the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy, discusses "The Unequal Costs of Black Homeownership" with Egbert Perry.

Egbert Perry discusses the lasting effects of structural decisions made by political governance, governance that is emerging in the wake of decades of policies that intentionally advantaged some over others.

In this episode of Create the Village, Egbert Perry explores how market forces can be leveraged to diminish systemic inequities that are rooted in existing social dynamics and public policies.