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THE JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

Explore Black History

Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.

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Civil Rights

Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.

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Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.

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Sports

Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.

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People

Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.

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Places

Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.

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Events

Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.

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MY'STORY

The MOVE Fire

This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985 Philadelphia police fired thousands of rounds at the MOVE house, city officials approved dropping an explosive device on the roof, the resulting fire was allowed to burn, 11 people—including five children—died, and 61 homes were destroyed. Philadelphia City Council later called it a “brutal attack carried out by the City of Philadelphia on its own citizens” and acknowledged that no individual faced criminal consequences for the bombing. One timeline correction worth preserving for the BHP record: the major previous MOVE-police confrontation was August 8, 1978, about seven years before the bombing, not a year or two earlier. Officer James Ramp was killed, other police and firefighters were wounded, nine MOVE members were later convicted, and television cameras recorded police beating Delbert Africa during his arrest. The 1985 MOVE Commission later specifically criticized city planners for failing to adequately use lessons from that 1978 confrontation. And that actually strengthens the point you’re making: 1985 did not happen without precedent or institutional memory. There had already been a deadly confrontation with MOVE, years of conflict, negotiations and police involvement before Osage Avenue.

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BLACK FACTS
The Truths They Never Taught You...

Wilmington 1898 — An American Coup

Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.

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BHP gathered finds from its connected research sources. Showing the 4 strongest Black History matches.
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Wikipedia

Real estate development

The Solidere development of the Beirut seafront and harbor.
In the Netherlands, virtually all housing is developed and built through property developers, including development in upmarket segments.
Mobile homes development in the Florida Keys, June 1973

Real estate development is the process of acquiring land or existing property, improving it through planning and construction, and selling or leasing for profit.[1] It involves coordinating design, financing, approvals, construction, and marketing. Developers assume significant risk in exchange for potential returns and may oversee projects ranging from residential housing to commercial and mixed-use developments.

Developers acquire land, arrange financing, obtain regulatory approvals, and oversee construction or renovation.[2] Developers usually take significant financial risks in the creation or renovation of real estate and receive the greatest rewards. Typically, developers purchase a tract of land, determine the marketing of the property, develop the building program and design, obtain the necessary public approval and financing, build the structures, and rent out, manage, and ultimately sell it.[3]

Real estate development has been criticized for contributing to urban sprawl and environmental degradation.[4] Supporters argue that development expands housing supply, reduces housing costs, stimulates economic growth and creates jobs. Lower construction costs,[5] land prices and regulation costs[6] tend to increase real estate construction.

Some developers only handle part of the process. For example, some developers source a property and get the plans and permits approved before selling the property with the plans and permits to a builder at a premium price. Alternatively, a developer who is also a builder may purchase a property with the plans and permits in place so that they do not have the risk of failing to obtain planning approval and can start construction on the development immediately. Financial difficulties in development and investing differ because of leverage[7].

Supply and demand curves with economic equilibrium of price and quantity apply to real estate development

Developers work with many different counterparts along each step of this process, including architects, city planners, engineers, surveyors, inspectors, contractors, lawyers, leasing agents, etc. In the Town and Country Planning context in the United Kingdom, “development” is defined in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 s55.

Organizing for development

[edit]

Development teams vary in size, bigger companies may provide all services in-house. At the other end of the spectrum, a development company might consist of one principal and a few staff who hire or contract with other companies and professionals for each service as needed.

Assembling a team of professionals to address the environmental, economic, private, physical and political issues inherent in a complex development project is critical. A developer's success depends on the ability to coordinate and lead the completion of a series of interrelated activities efficiently and at the appropriate time.[8]

Development process requires skills of many professionals: architects, landscape architects, civil engineers and site planners to address project design; market consultants to determine demand and a project's economics; attorneys to handle agreements and government approvals; environmental consultants and soils engineers to analyze a site's physical limitations and environmental impacts; surveyors and title companies to provide legal descriptions of a property; and lenders to provide financing. The general contractor of the project hires subcontractors to put the architectural plans into action.

Land development

[edit]

Purchasing unused land for a potential development is sometimes called speculative development.

Subdivision of land is the principal mechanism by which communities are developed. Technically, subdivision describes the legal and physical steps a developer must take to convert raw land into developed land. Subdivision is a vital part of a community's growth, determining its appearance, the mix of its land uses, and its infrastructure, including roads, drainage systems, water, sewerage, and public utilities.

Land development is risky because it depends on outside approval and infrastructure and often requires a long investment time period without cash flow.

After subdivision is complete, the developer usually markets the land to a home builder or other end user, for such uses as a warehouse or shopping center. In any case, use of spatial intelligence tools mitigate the risk of these developers by modeling the population trends and demographic make-up of the sort of customers a home builder or retailer would like to have surrounding their new development.[9]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Lucius, Dominik I. (2001-02-01). "Real options in real estate development". Journal of Property Investment & Finance. 19 (1): 73–78. doi:10.1108/14635780110365370. ISSN 1463-578X.
  2. ^ New York Times, March 16, 1963, "Personality Boom is Loud for Louis Lesser"
  3. ^ Frej, Anne B; Peiser, Richard B. (2003). Professional Real Estate Development: The ULI Guide to the Business (2 ed.). Urban Land Institute. p. 3. ISBN 0874208947. OCLC 778267123.
  4. ^ Sheng, Hainan (2025-02-18). "Is the Sustainability of the External Environment Priced in Commercial Real Estate?". Journal of Real Estate Research: 1–43. doi:10.1080/08965803.2025.2456343. ISSN 0896-5803.
  5. ^ Somerville, C. Tsuriel (1999). "Residential Construction Costs and the Supply of New Housing: Endogeneity and Bias in Construction Cost Indexes". The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics. 18 (1): 43–62. doi:10.1023/A:1007785312398. ISSN 0895-5638. Retrieved 2026-03-30.
  6. ^ Gyourko, Joseph; Saiz, Albert (2006). "CONSTRUCTION COSTS AND THE SUPPLY OF HOUSING STRUCTURE*". Journal of Regional Science. 46 (4): 661–680. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9787.2006.00472.x. ISSN 0022-4146. Retrieved 2026-03-30.
  7. ^ Long, Charles (2011). Finance for Real Estate Development. Urban Land Institute. ISBN 978-0-87420-157-4.
  8. ^ Homes, Synsera (13 September 2019). "Article: What does a property developer do? Sept 2019". Synsera Homes. Archived from the original on 2020-08-08. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  9. ^ "What is a Lady Bird Deed". April 18, 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-09-27. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
[edit]
  • Wikimedia Commons logo Media related to Real estate development at Wikimedia Commons

Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.

Wikipedia

SOHO China

SOHO China is a Chinese building developer, primarily in the office and commercial sector, with some residential and mixed-use properties in its portfolio. The company, which uses the name "SOHO" in both English and Chinese contexts, was founded in 1995 by Chairman Pan Shiyi (潘石屹) and CEO Zhang Xin (张欣). The name SOHO comes from the phrase "Smart Office, Home Office" as the company decided to combine office rooms and residential apartments in the same building to facilitate a comfortable and productive environment. SOHO China focuses on developing properties in the central business districts of Beijing and Shanghai. SOHO China developments are known for their modern architecture, with designs from figures such as Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, and Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. The company has developed over five million square meters of commercial properties. Many of its buildings have won awards and other recognition for their design. Fortune has described SOHO China as "one of the country's most high-profile real estate firms", and The New York Times has described the company as China's only pure prime office developer. Having shifted from a "build to sell" to "build to hold" strategy in 2012, the company now holds 1.4 million square meters of office space in Beijing and Shanghai for long-term investment. Although the company has sold several properties in the late 2010s, Pan Shiyi has said that "Soho will continue to hold and operate its core assets in Beijing and Shanghai". Pan also noted in 2016 that the transition to "build to hold" was requiring the company to endure some difficult times, but by the following year rental income had increased by 44%, contributing to a 69% increase in annual net profits for the company. In June 2021, Pan and Zhang struck a deal to sell a controlling stake to Blackstone for $3 billion.

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Wikipedia

Google Developer Day

Google Developer Day events were one-day web developer-focused gatherings around the world held annually by Google. They include seminars and codelabs focused on building of web, mobile, and enterprise applications with Google and open web technologies such as Android, HTML5, Chrome, App Engine, Google Web Toolkit and give participants a chance to learn about Google developer products and meet Google engineers.

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Wikipedia

List of city-building video games

This is a list of city-building games, sorted chronologically. Information regarding date of release, developer, platform, setting and notability is provided when available. The table can be sorted by clicking on the small boxes next to the column headings.

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Wikipedia

Real estate development

Real estate development is the process of acquiring land or existing property, improving it through planning and construction, and selling or leasing for profit. It involves coordinating design, financing, approvals, construction, and marketing. Developers assume significant risk in exchange for potential returns and may oversee projects ranging from residential housing to commercial and mixed-use developments. Developers acquire land, arrange financing, obtain regulatory approvals, and oversee construction or renovation. Developers usually take significant financial risks in the creation or renovation of real estate and receive the greatest rewards. Typically, developers purchase a tract of land, determine the marketing of the property, develop the building program and design, obtain the necessary public approval and financing, build the structures, and rent out, manage, and ultimately sell it. Real estate development has been criticized for contributing to urban sprawl and environmental degradation. Supporters argue that development expands housing supply, reduces housing costs, stimulates economic growth and creates jobs. Lower construction costs, land prices and regulation costs tend to increase real estate construction. Some developers only handle part of the process. For example, some developers source a property and get the plans and permits approved before selling the property with the plans and permits to a builder at a premium price. Alternatively, a developer who is also a builder may purchase a property with the plans and permits in place so that they do not have the risk of failing to obtain planning approval and can start construction on the development immediately. Financial difficulties in development and investing differ because of leverage. Developers work with many different counterparts along each step of this process, including architects, city planners, engineers, surveyors, inspectors, contractors, lawyers, leasing agents, etc. In the Town and Country Planning context in the United Kingdom, “development” is defined in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 s55.

MORE →
TOPIC OF THE DAY

Greenwood / Black Wall Street

Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.

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TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE DAY

Which heavyweight champion was known as the “Brown Bomber”?

Joe Louis.