Meet Jaebadiah Gardner

10 Dec Meet Jaebadiah Gardner

Jaebadiah Gardner poses in front of Seattle’s famed Gum Wall.

As one of few African American real estate developers in Seattle, Jaebadiah Gardner is poised to know a great deal about the challenges and opportunities of developing affordable housing in the Central District. Mr. Gardner is the Managing Partner at Onpoint Real Estate Services, overseeing property management and development. With two sizable projects on the horizon – one commercial, one residential – work is plentiful.

Onpoint Real Estate includes a team of 11 people, over 90% of whom identify as either a person of color or LGBTQ – a point of pride for Mr. Gardner. His company seeks to create new avenues for typically disenfranchised people through real estate development and management as well as through career opportunities.

“Real estate development is all about building wealth. It’s a field that’s mostly white and mostly male. Marginalized communities need ways of building and maintaining wealth, and that is a very important goal of Onpoint Real Estate,” says Mr. Gardner.

That’s what excites him about the Liberty Bank Building – it is a symbol of political and community partnership that creates and preserves affordable housing and building ownership in the Central District, the historical center of the African American and African diaspora community in Seattle.

While the Liberty Bank Building doesn’t solve the greater problem of an affordability crisis plaguing the neighborhood – and region – it is a small but bold step in the right direction.