And perhaps — in the long run — it was the best thing that happened to Walters. Walters was interested in building generational wealth. And so he put this interest together with his business and marketing education together and earned his realtor’s license. And he got an opportunity right out of the gate.

“I connected with the Urban League and helped them with their Single Family Homebuyers Program,” Walters said. “And the rest is history.”

Walters went to work for Commonwealth Companies, a real estate development company.

“I became interested in development once I worked with a development shop,” Walters said. “I was also a participant in the ACRE Program through LISC Milwaukee, MSOE, Marquette University and UW-Milwaukee. The cities of Milwaukee and Madison are both partners in that program. It’s a 26-week program that introduces Black developers into the space: architects, investors and people who have a real estate background. It helps them by introducing them to the development and commercial real estate world. I had an interest in development before ACRE. I was just observing what was going on in the city of Madison in housing and all of the cranes and doing my own due diligence. That’s where the interest came from. And ACRE kind of helped catapult and jump start my career, helping me meet certain people and honing my technical skills. I was doing all of this while going to school for a master’s in business administration and while working full-time for an affordable housing development firm.”

Walters continued to put the pieces together to get into the real estate development game. He founded Eminent Development Corp. in 2023 and earned his master’s in business from Morgan State University in December 2024. While there was no generational wealth in Walters’ family, it didn’t stop him from pursuing his dream in spite of the odds. There is always an upset looming for any betting odds. And it all boiled down to determination.

“It was just a leap of faith,” Walters said. “I learned. I put my time and work in where I was pulling 12 hour days between work and driving to Milwaukee and back and doing all of my extra studying. I’ve been entrepreneurial spirited and I felt like it was time for me to spread my wings and see what I could make of myself. I wanted to retain ownership. That was the biggest piece of it. Working for someone is great. But it’s a lot of comfort and there isn’t a lot of risk on your end. But if the company goes up, that also affects you too. But there are a lot of perks to owning your own company and doing your own thing. And that ownership aspect, that wealth generator, is what did it for me. ‘Hey, I want to do this for myself. If I succeed or fail, I need to know that I tried.’”

And Walters waited for the right opportunity to make his move.

“When the city released the RFP for what would eventually become Park Lofts, just the side of town it was on, the location, the mission and how we tied it to my family, I took advantage of the opportunity,” Walters said. “There were other qualified developers who applied, but just being confident and reassured in myself, I put together everything and my hat in the ring. I just wanted to see what happened. They liked it. The stakeholders like it. The alderman liked it. And here we are breaking ground on a historic project.”

The Park Loft Apartments will be rising from the land that once housed Maynard Printing and Project Bootstrap and some programs of the African American Ethnic Academy, which Walters attended in his youth. Putting together a project like this is no easy task. One of the big items in capital.

“Having your own skin in the game is typically the way it is,” Walters observed. “You have to be resourceful if you don’t come from money. And I was very resourceful. And that comes with other layered commitments that you have to have and things like that when you are doing these types of buildings. But you just have to be resourceful. And you can’t let ‘no’ be your determinant. Otherwise, how are you going to break into the industry?”

Walters put the capital together for the $17 million, 34-unit complex.

“I got $2 million from the city of Madison, $1.8 million from the Dane County Housing Authority, a tax credit award from WHEDA,” Walters said. “My permanent debt and construction loan came from US Bank. The city and the county are what they call your soft gap funding, to fill the capital stack. And the WHEDA tax credits are the equity that I won through a competitive application process. And that finances about 85 percent of the building in total.”

And as the developer, Walters was responsible for bringing the right people into the project to make it successful.

“A developer is a huge relationship manager, has a technical feel for how to model and play with numbers to make them work,” Walters said. “He’s essentially the point guard of a development. That’s how I associate it with my previous life. You make sure that everything runs. You have your team, your architect, your general counsel, your consultants, your civil engineers, your energy people. You’re working with all of them to make sure they are designing and developing to the standard that you have envisioned while also you are going out finding all of the money to make this thing work. You’re building your capital stack so that you can actually build what you are envisioning.”

One of the primary target populations for the project was foster children aging out of foster care. When they hit 18-years-old, they went from wrap-around care to no care at all meaning they were going out in the world with few resources and no guidance to make it on their own. Park Lofts will assist them into their adulthood transition.

“We made sure that we were putting together the right team members,” Walters said. “When you pull off a deal like this, the thing that makes this a unique project is the homeless population and the youth that we are serving. In doing that, you want to make sure that you’re not only are they successful, but the development as a whole is successful. You have to make sure that the architecture and the finishes are comparable to what you would see in a market-rate, standard apartment building. But also make sure that the wrap-around services, the property management are all in line to support the target group and the broader apartment population.

Walters brought in Just Dane to provide housing support to the youth through a satellite office in the building. And Lutheran Social Services, which has experience in providing building management services for housing projects serving economically-challenged households through an office at the site as well.

While 11 of the studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units will be reserved for youth matriculating out of foster care, the others will be workforce-priced families and individuals.

“The majority of the building will be for people who are working every day who want to live in Madison or are from Madison,” Walters said. “They are in public service, waitresses, adults and families who are working in Dane County who fall within a certain income range. We’ll be able to provide housing for them. They will be 40 percent and 60 percent of Dane County’s median income.”

And there will be amenities.

“We’ll have a fitness center on the first floor,” Walters said. “And on the fifth floor, we’ll have a community room that walks out into a patio that overlooks Park Street and the lake. And you have a nice vista of the State Capitol. We’ll offer all of those services to the residents.”

Being at the corner of Olin Avenue and S. Park Street also puts the residents in a great position to access basic services and access to other parts of Madison.

“They are right on the bus line and a grocery store is close by,” Walters said. “It has a lot of natural amenities tool, which was prime for this location. When we were talking to the city about the development, bus stop, grocery store, a park and a hospital within walking distance, it has a lot of natural location amenities that will be beneficial for all of the residents of Park Lofts. There will be a garage that provides 18 parking stalls.”

It hasn’t been easy for Walters to get to this position. While he says that “the stars aligned and God guided my judgment and here I am as a real estate developer,” It also took a lot of hard work and a belief in himself — reinforced by family and others — that has gotten him this far.

And Walters hopes others will follow behind him.

“You hear all about the big guys, the Alexander Companies and the Gormans and those people who have done great work,” Walters said. “But they all look a certain way. And I think it’s time and the right opportunity for minorities, Black people to also have their opportunities to develop. And I would encourage those who are reading this article to definitely chase that purpose if real estate is something that interests them. It’s not easy. It’s not all glitz and glamour that the news makes it out to be. It’s a lot of long, restless, sleepless nights trying to get these things across the finish line. But it’s a beautiful thing and I am happy to be leading the charge in Madison as Black developers are becoming more prevalent in that area.”

Jackie Hunt — Walters’ mother — has been a long-time community activist in South Madison. In some ways, Walters is following in her footsteps while also following a path that is just right for him and his dreams. And in the process, he is helping others’ dreams to come true.