How Dr. Elayne Brunson Bought an Entire Downtown Block to Build a Mixed-Use Arts & Tech Village

Dr. Elayne Brunson (00:00)
when you buy a property, especially if it’s commercial, like put your plan in writing immediately. try to go ahead and get it to your city or your municipality. And maybe your architects and engineers, that way you have a paper trail of what you were gonna do. that way if you’re faced with imminent domain, like you said, they have to give you fair market value. So your planning, your blueprints, all of that is actually included in your market value

Issa Hanna (02:01)
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros Show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna, and today I have a treat. I have Dr. Elayne Brunson with us. Elayne, welcome to the show.

Dr. Elayne Brunson (02:10)
Yeah, thanks for having me on. I’m totally excited to get this rolling.

Issa Hanna (02:14)
I’m super excited to have you. I love talking to our investors. You’re in the South Carolina market, which from our pre conversation you told me I mean it’s booming right now. We’re gonna get into that a little bit later. But for our viewers at home, can you kind of give them a brief rundown of what your business is focused on and then a day-to-day in your life?

Dr. Elayne Brunson (02:34)
Yeah, so I’m a real estate investor. I started off with residential single family homes. And recently, as of 2024, I acquired a block of real estate in a downtown Main Street district. And so, I’ve totally fallen in love with commercial real estate. I also know that

Had I known what all this development entails, I may not have jumped in this fast. And so my day has turned into meetings after meetings, planning, learning all different types of new lawyers that I never knew existed, like environmental lawyers. And so my day has just really increased with learning new people and learning new things about commercial real estate.

Issa Hanna (03:25)
I love that. And that’s a natural progression. we all start in the single family. Eventually we want more. We want to own more prestigious properties worth more money. the rental, the commercial rental game is a lot more stable in some instances. So you made that natural progression in exactly the time. You started 2012, 2024, you bought the first commercial, but you bought the whole block. You didn’t start with just one.

You took the whole thing over and now, yeah, it’s your first one. So you’re dealing with a lot of things you might not have dealt with. But the good thing about that is, and I always tell everybody when I talk to them, and if they feel in over their head a little bit. I always say once you get through to the other side, you’re gonna be a pro. The education you’re getting right now is unbelievable. but I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit. We all have that cool.

I got into real estate story. You told me how you got in. I want you to share it with the viewers because I thought it was a pretty cool way to start real estate.

Dr. Elayne Brunson (04:23)
Well, I actually told you part of the story. So my first business was a cleaning company, which is still in operation, Angel Made Cleaning Company. And so I would always be working. This is down in South Florida and Palm Beach when I started. And some of my earliest clients would be like real estate agents that dealt with REOs with the bank. I knew some house flippers, I knew a few developers.

And so they would be sending me work, like renovation cleanups or move outs because the home went through the bank foreclosure and someone left their things. And so I didn’t realize, but I was actually learning about real estate while just cleaning up these properties. And so that was in 2008. And so fast forward around 2012.

My father, he was a government employee in Sumter, South Carolina. And he had a heart attack at 49 and passed away in his office. And so I never anticipated getting involved with real estate, but I was 26 years old. Like my cleaning company’s booming because at the time there was like a lot of foreclosures and a housing market crash in South Florida. So I wasn’t like

Like I was thankful that my father thought of my future and left me some insurance money, but I didn’t need it as far as my day-to-day survival. So I wanted to make sure that, I reinvest the money and make it grow. And so I don’t know, it just dawned on me when I came home to my father’s funeral and I saw the state of my hometown community. And then I was just like, what? Let me just try to invest in real estate.

And it was easier for me to do it in South Carolina at the time versus South Florida because Palm Beach is like really expensive. even so back then. And so what I was able to get like ten to twelve properties with starting off in South Carolina, I probably would have got one or two in South Florida.

Issa Hanna (07:14)
Wow, yeah. And a lot of times, those smaller markets make more money when you actually sit down and underwrite My properties are in Cleveland, Ohio, not a high dollar value market, but one of the best ROIs you can get in the country. So amazing. And then, condolences for your father, but shout out to your father for thinking of you. as a father, that’s all you do is you think about what you could leave behind for your kids and he left you

what’s propelled you to 10 houses and knee deep in the real estate game. And then I wanted to pull out, the house cleaning thing. A good house cleaner, to an investor, to a real estate agent, somebody that’s dependable, that can show up, is going to get so much work from that one real estate agent, let alone multiple. But like you did, Elayne, you were in there, but you got to see how the investment world works.

without you even knowing you were already kind of familiar with it. So it made that transition so much more easier in 2012 or when you decided to buy your own property. So I just wanted to pull a couple things out. And truly amazing. Shout out to Pops for doing that because very cool. I mean very cool. Something that I would love my kid after I pass to say about me and left some money and thought about me. I wanted to

shift focus just a little bit because when we were talking earlier, when I introduced you, I introduced you as Dr. Elayne Brunson, right? Yeah. You got an honorary doctorate. And that doesn’t come easily. I mean, you’ve got to get, you’ve got to do some work to get that in. So can you kind of give us a story about the honorary doctorate?

Dr. Elayne Brunson (08:48)
Yeah. So I feel like I’ve kind of taken what my parents and my grandparents have done for me and taken it to the next level. So in my hometown, my grandfather, he was big on community service and social justice and civil rights. And so he was the president of the NAACP when I was a kid. And so I was always, doing civil rights work or community service.

And when I came back home, like I noticed there was like a real estate issue as far as we had a bulk of inventory just in the market, no one owning, well, people owned it, but no one doing anything, a lot of abandoned buildings, abandoned houses. I started noticing, like also in the social world, as far as some of the business needs and the community needs and

So I ended up moving back home in around 2016. And so I didn’t realize that I was going to end up doing community service work. And so when I came home, I reached out to a county councilman and I asked, I was like, hey, what are some of the needs in the economy or in our local community? And so they put me on a few boards and commissions. I served on our community development housing board for the city of Sumter.

I also served on our culture commission, which is the arts program. And so long story short, through me doing community service work, that’s how I just got involved with the community. And so that led to others around the country noticing me. And so I won the 40 under 40, the 20 under 40.

And then the next thing a Bible college reached out to me and they were like, Hey, we’re just totally thrilled with the work you’re doing in the community. And they told me they wanted to honor my community service work. And so that led to my honorary doctorate. And that’s in Christian business management because they felt that, I was deeply rooted in the community and that I had ethics and morals in the way that I did things. And so

here we go. But I did also actually get a four year degree from the HBCU Morris College, which is in Sumter, and that’s in organizational management, another business degree.

Issa Hanna (11:06)
I love that. So you’re just made for this business world. And how cool to be honored for the social work that you did, for the community work that you did in your own community. Like you went back home and you made it a better place. I mean, that is the dream to any kid in their neighborhood that grows up and seeing the abandoned houses, all that. I mean, you are truly a hometown hero. I love that. And then Morris College.

Very reputable college, great college. I mean, can’t say enough, can’t say enough about the accomplishments. Truly, truly amazing. I wanna change the tone a little bit. We all have them, and it’s the real estate nightmare. I want you to share one of your real estate nightmares that popped up that you may have had that you had to get through.

and get to the other side and you learn from.

Dr. Elayne Brunson (11:55)
wow, I have two. Let me share them both and consider time. So the first one would be: unfortunately, I went through a divorce. I was married for 15 years. And what I think to be true is about midway through the process.

my ex-husband, and not to bash him because he is in our kids’ lives and he’s an amazing father, but the partnership between us didn’t work. I think that he felt entitled to some of my real estate dealings. Now we were never business partners with real estate, but like I said, my father left me an inheritance and I took that insurance money.

And any other monies he left me and I rolled it all into real estate. And what he didn’t realize is that’s not considered marital property, at least not in the state of South Carolina or Florida. And so if you in state of South Carolina or Florida, if you happen to have a business before you’re married, like those business assets are your businesses in divorce.

And if you get like money that’s specifically left to you, like insurance or a trust, those monies and whatever you do with it is specifically for you. And so when I went through divorce, my ex spouse found out that a lot of the things that I own was not community property, it wasn’t joined, it was gonna stay with me.

And some mismanagement started occurring within my business. I guess maybe he felt, well, since I’m not gonna get anything out of this, let me just try to sabotage it. And so some of my properties got destroyed, found myself almost in foreclosure court because some of the monies

one of my rooming houses, like I found out he was taking the money from the tenants and not applying it to the mortgage. And so now I’m going through divorce and I’m going through my finances, and I find out, hey, by the way, you’re about to lose some of your property. And so that was a nightmare. But I was able to pull up my bootstrap and my dad would always tell me, tighten your bra strap. And so I tightened my bra strap and

Started cleaning toilets a little harder and worked my way out of that. And thankfully I didn’t lose any of my property. So that was a learning lesson for me and something that was unexpected. And I hope I don’t go through that again. another thing that I went through with property that I’m sort of wrapping up right now. the block of real estate that I got on a main street, believe it or not, I own the town’s.

Old electrical municipal power plant. back in the day, our community used to create its own electricity. The city realized that they were in way over their head. And so they shut the plant down in 1925. And so the building, and this is one of the buildings on the block because there’s a few. but the building, the power plant, it hadn’t been bought back to life since it shut down.

Now, the people that I bought it from that owned it, they actually did use it as a storage facility for their company, electrical wholesalers or whatever. And so they stored electrical rewinding in the building as a shell, but they never did anything with it. And so after their company shut down in the early 90s, the property sat vacant from the 90s up until

2022. And so lo and behold, I have this ancient block of real estate that’s been sitting vacant for 30 some years. And as soon as I get it, everybody else wanted it. So I have neighbors who are trying to challenge me in court about land, saying some of it’s theirs, the state of South Carolina.

we have multiple in eminent domain cases. So I closed one and now there’s another one pending right now. all because the property is located next to what was a bridge. And so they’re expanding the road. And so basically, this is how, like I said earlier, once I got into commercial real estate.

I started learning new words and new people and things I never heard of. And so I never heard of imminent domain a day in my life. It’s definitely a battle, a headache. And like I do understand the community needs to grow and things change over time, but it’s kind of discouraging, when you have your plans for something you buy and then the government comes and tells you, Hey, I don’t care what you were doing, this is what we’re gonna do. And so

Issa Hanna (16:31)
One hundred percent. And for people at home wondering, okay, what eminent domain is, you learn this in real estate school, so I’ll define it. It’s basically the government can take your property, pay you fair market value. In some cases, if you don’t wanna cooperate, they could just take it. for an expansion project they have. So like Elayne said, they wanna expand the roadway, so they might take

That property pay you for it so that they can knock down whatever’s on it and help expand the roadway. Sucks because a lot of times you do have to fight it in court and you do have to fight for your owner’s rights. I mean, those two nightmares are some nightmares. I’ve heard quite a few. that I’m never surprised because you never know what’s going to get thrown at you in real estate. But the good thing about it is you never lose, you always learn, right? So when you make it through to the other side.

if you ever, God forbid, encounter that again, the exit plan. So I was always thankful. It’s horrible when you’re going through it, but when you get through to the other side, you’re kind of thankful because you have this knowledge that not a lot of people may have. So that’s why I always ask my guests about the real estate nightmare without even prepping it, because I know all us investors have one and we’ve all gone through it.

Dr. Elayne Brunson (17:46)
Yeah, I think if I had to give anyone advice on like a new investor,

when you buy a property, especially if it’s commercial, like put your plan in writing immediately. try to go ahead and get it to your city or your municipality.

And maybe your architects and engineers, that way you have a paper trail of what you were gonna do. that way if you’re faced with imminent domain, like you said, they have to give you fair market value. So your planning, your blueprints, all of that is actually included in your market value

versus if I had just purchased it and just sat on it, like some of the houses I got, fair market value. So

Issa Hanna (18:28)
Yep, exactly. But if you show them that you’re planning to develop it and do something with it, now that’s worth more. I could share a quick little story and then we’re gonna get back to Elayne. I actually had an eminent domain situation happen to one of my properties. And I had just bought the property maybe a year before. City came to me. they wanted to buy three duplexes right next to each other. The other two weren’t owned by me, one was.

So the other two owners, they sold for I want to say fifty or sixty thousand. When they came to me, I wouldn’t budge. I kept telling them, I just bought the property, I have plans to add value, whatever it is. I kept pushing them until they gave me and this is long time ago. So sixty thousand, hundred thousand, that’s what the prices were back in the day in Cleveland, Ohio. They ended up giving me a hundred thousand dollars for the property, so forty thousand more than the other two guys.

just by exactly what Elayne said, telling them that I have plans for this, this is what the home is worth for me. So amazing, amazing. And you learn so much by going through something like that. not a lot of homeowners, they could be in it for 30, 40 years. They might not have an eminent domain situation happen once. So you’re already such a leg up on people. And I want to get your five year plan now. I look you up in five years.

Where am I going to see you at home?

Dr. Elayne Brunson (19:45)
Years from now, I think I will definitely end up having partners. right now, you can expect within the next five years, Sumter Power Village. That’s the block of real estate that I purchased in the downtown Main Street district. What I’m working on is creating a arts and tech village.

And so basically, what Sumter Power Village is, South Carolina is just booming. First of all, it’s the number one state in America people are moving to. We got the best GDP in the nation. And so right now, our tech hubs, like our government, has been giving the state money to expand on its tech programs. And so our tech hubs right now are Charleston, South Carolina, and Greenville. And so I’m located in the middle of the state.

And so my goal by creating the tech village is to centralize it that way, Charleston, Greenville, and now we’re expanding tech in the middle of the state. And so with this tech village that within five years, you’ll definitely see it up. what I’m creating is a village where it includes mixed use development. So there’ll be spaces for entrepreneurs,

Co-shared spaces where entrepreneurs can come together and collaborate on tech related businesses. And, that would help our state and our immediate region and mid-state. also, the people should be able to live on the block and everything that they would need for like the basic quality of life. I expect to have that right there on the block.

And also fusing that with like art. So when you think of your average neighborhood, you may have the community house or the community pool, things like that. So our community area is gonna be arts related. So we have a small amphitheater that’s going in the community court and some green spaces and just like a lot of art murals. And so basically

five years from now, this will definitely be up and running. It’s gonna be one of a kind. they do have a few models. Like when I thought of this, I thought I was like the smartest person in the world, the only person who would think like this. But I actually found out there’s other examples in the country. in Atlanta, they have a tech district. also, I think in Mississippi, in their downtown, there’s a developer that has a few blocks that they own that they’re making a tech district.

And so basically this will be off the ground, up and running. So all you tech creatives, you arts folks, like you can definitely come to Sumter and find this project creatively wired, different from anything else you’ll see in South Carolina. like I said, it’s a mixed use property and it’s for entrepreneurship, for living, like the power plant. It has some of the coolest windows ever, like those big.

rounded windows, just great area for lofts. And so in the next five years, like I said, that’s what you should expect to see that Sumter Power Village is completed and we’ve completely repurposed a historic municipal power plant that, may not have gotten any attention because, like I said, before I had it, it had been vacant for like 30, 40 years.

Issa Hanna (23:04)
Wow. truly, truly amazing vision you have for it. it’s already work’s already being performed five years down the line. This is gonna be something totally new. South Carolina doesn’t have it. City of Sumter, you better be nice to Elayne because that thing sat vacant and an eyesore for thirty years and now she’s bringing something fresh, something new and something beautiful to the city. So

let her go ahead and get that vision done so I can visit there in five years and maybe not too good of an artist, but I’ll draw a stick figure if I ever go down there.

Dr. Elayne Brunson (23:35)
Say my relations with the city have improved. I was a little upset earlier this year. There actually, I don’t know if like a lot of Main Street districts, they’re known as like the central business districts in America. And so when I first got the property, it was zoned industrial, and so one of my first stages of development was getting it rezoned from industrial.

To the central business district, because it’s basically like right there all connected. And so, I wasn’t gonna put a power plant back there or no type of there’s no industrial downtown anymore. And so they allowed me to rezone to central business district in 2023. So earlier this year, I got a letter in the mail and they’re like, hey, we’re rezoning downtown and you’re now gonna be in the downtown core. And so I was upset because

One of the changes was gonna be that now I have to go through the downtown design overlay. And I’m like, my goodness. Not only is it more money that I’m gonna have to spend for more red tape to go through, but now like I felt like you were gonna challenge my creativity as far as how the buildings may look. Like I’m really into the historic aesthetic, and so the buildings that are there.

I don’t plan to change those, the facades. I want to pay homage to the uniqueness of the downtown. But my block also has 1.77 acres of raw land. And so I’m gonna build some buildings there that may not look historic. And so, long story short, I went to the city, shout out to our planning department, Helen Rodman, told her, hey, I’m like really upset right now. I spoke to city council.

And they actually did me a favor. So, like I said, me and the city are on great terms right now. they allowed me to, while I’m gonna have to be the downtown core because they’re changing the whole downtown, my property is being treated as grandfathered in. And so now I won’t have to go through that design review and try to explain my creativity to folks who may not.

have necessarily understood or saw my vision. So I’m really thankful for that.

Issa Hanna (25:49)
shout out City of Sumter, shout out Helen, for helping keep this vision alive. When you do deal with the town enough and they see your face enough, they’re easier to help you out and do things for you as opposed to somebody they don’t know or if you come in with a bad attitude or something like that. So I’m sure it’s because of your pleasant attitude.

Every they’re probably like, man, we’re giving this lady trouble and she’s just always smiling, coming in. so I think it’s now they like you and I bet you the project’s gonna be that much easier because people. Elayne, I wanted to give you the floor now. you are looking for some investors. This project is super, super interesting. So if some of our investors wanted to get a hold of you, maybe invest in your project, where could they reach you?

Dr. Elayne Brunson (26:33)
Yeah, so you can find me on Facebook Elayne Brunson. You can find me on LinkedIn, Elayne Brunson.

And then also, you can shoot me an email. so my email would be princess Z as in Zebra commercialholdings at gmail.com. I definitely do feel like I’m gonna need investors or other partners on this. I do pride myself that I got as far as I could on my own, and all of my things are debt-free. I don’t

owe anything other than my annual property taxes. But to better serve the community for something of this magnitude, like eventually I do know I will need help from others, maybe more tech specialists, also just art specialists. Like I did serve on our arts commission. And so art is a love of mine, but

I do know that, there’s people that specialize in things that are part of my vision. So eventually I do feel like I’m gonna need a partner. And so now is a great time to reach out to me because normally I’m the type of person that I like to do as much as I can on my own and then reach out for help. And so I’m thankful to be on your show. I think this is a great time to reach out, reach out to me.

Issa Hanna (27:50)
Definitely. So guys, if this project piques your interest, reach out to Elayne, talk to her. you never know. She just could be the next big thing. it’s definitely an original idea, beautiful vision. Elayne, I wanna close off with a piece of advice for our younger guests, right? The people who watch this to get some inspiration and some knowledge. Our business depends on growing your network.

We can’t grow your network without establishing business relationships. So if you had to give one piece of advice to our young viewer who’s struggling to establish that first relationship, what would you tell them?

Dr. Elayne Brunson (29:08)
network. So I would be attending every networking event, locally, statewide, in the region, in your niche, like, what are your passions? I would be looking for networks around the country. I would also strive to be the best that I could be, because sometimes doors open that you may not know of.

And so nationally I’ve won 40 under 40 and 20 under 20 young entrepreneurs. And so when I would win these awards, one of the first things I would do is congratulate everyone else who won. And through that, I’ve actually made like great friends in other states. And so networking is definitely key. And I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard the term your net worth is your network. And so

I try not to be the smartest or the loudest or the biggest person in the room. I try to learn every day. Cause I personally feel like if everything, like maybe you’ve served your purpose in the world. And so I like to continue learning from others. So I would just say, get out there and shake hands with everybody. I used to be an introvert, so that was kind of like challenging at first, but I would just force myself to do it. Just say, hey, I’m Elayne and just

Smile in people’s face and shake their hand. And some people would look at me weird, but eventually, like I said, I ended up making friends. And those are the people, your colleagues, that you can, your peers, that may be in your same business. And also I would say get a mentor. because I was an introvert, I didn’t have like a direct mentor.

But I’m very observant. So, like I said, with my cleaning company, I would pay attention to the real estate developers around me. Now, this may sound weird, but another thing I would do like, so I would get some wealthy people, right? And Wellington, horse lovers, I’d be in their house and I’d look at their bookshelves and see what they are reading. And, I did that because I knew that one day, I didn’t know how, but I knew I was gonna be wealthy one day.

So I would look at their bookshelves and say, hmm, what are wealthy people reading? So I would just say be observant and network and shake hands and if you’re an introvert, like push through it.

Issa Hanna (31:24)
I love that advice. I mean golden, golden advice. Guys, if you zoned out or something like that, halfway through you better pause it, rewind it, and listen to that again because that is how you become successful. you just gave our young viewers a blueprint on how to grow their network. amazing. Dr. Elayne Brunson, thank you so much for bringing such a breath of fresh air to the show. We’re all out of time for today, but I will

Like to invite you back on the show at a later date if you’ll have us.

Dr. Elayne Brunson (31:53)
Yeah, that sounds exciting. I’d love to come back. Maybe I’d talk more about residential side and less commercial.

Issa Hanna (31:58)
That sounds amazing to me. just the knowledge you brought to us today. I’m so thankful. And on behalf of the viewers, I’d like to thank you again. and to the viewers at home, if you enjoyed my conversation with Elayne, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that can bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time. The Real Estate Pros are out.