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As part of our initiative to encourage a remote/hybrid culture and inspiration from global travel, Cohere Designer Katherine worked out of Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia in May 2023.

Cohere Designer Katherine works remotely from Slovenia and gathers inspiration. 

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Designer Working Remote in Slovenia

Our team at Cohere has long admired the design community that Shawn Chopra and Anne Morgan, partners in business and life, have built in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood with 

. And, they haven’t been at it for long. good neighbor’s coffee shop with design-focused retail launched in 2020 - right during the height of the pandemic. Never mind that, they steadily won fans and built fruitful partnerships with many local artists and makers. Soon after in 2022, they launched their 

 space where architects, interior designers, and really anyone who signs on for their Trade Program can get exclusive access to coveted international brands like Finn Juhl, Frama, Normann Copenhagen, Hem - for whom good neighbor is often the only Mid-Atlantic retailer.

 - a 7-room boutique hotel on the two floors above their beloved coffee shop and retail space. Meant to be an extension of their (very well-designed) feeling of home, and an opportunity to showcase the work of both Baltimore makers and artists, alongside of Shawn and Anne’s Indian and Egyptian roots, we were honored to 

work with them to tell the story to local, national, and industry press.

Cohere partner Chris Richards sat down to have a conversation with good neighbor Co-founder Shawn Chopra and Director of Brand and Marketing Justin Timothy Temple to work with them to tell the story to local, national, and industry press, touching on fostering collaboration without competition, the highs and lows of bringing guesthouse to life, and what’s next for the good neighbor team.

Justin, you are good neighbor’s Director of Brand and Marketing; how did you become a part of the team and what drew you in?

My relationship with Shawn has really evolved over time. I remember attending a soft opening as a customer. It was right at the beginning of the pandemic, so it was a time with a lot of unknowns. When

 I think about good neighbor, at least in that period, it was a place of grounding, of stability.

 It was part of me and my partner's routine weekly, going on a Saturday morning. In a world that was just very chaotic, we knew that every Saturday, we were going to be there in that line no matter what.

And then it built from there. I knew we were going to Shawn and Anne [Shawn’s wife and good neighbor co-owner]. So it was very much a place of affinity. A place of feeling like there was some space that we could go to, that was enjoyable, welcoming and safe. We [Shawn and I] wound up hanging out more socially, rather than professionally. And so when the opportunity came to help understand a thing that they were working on from a marketing perspective, it was just a very casual ask. But as these things go, one thing turns into another, then we’re talking about more work together. And then a few months after that, you're part of a team.

CR: good neighbor has drawn a lot of lines between various cultural and artistic communities in Baltimore through the shop and guesthouse; it’s something that Jack from Dwell noted in 

. Tell us more about how you like to build partnerships with artists and potential collaborators.

We definitely don't feel like there should be any kind of competition between artists or makers’ work. 

We see it as, the more channels that an artist, or maker, or designer, or writer, or anyone has, the more chances that they have to get their work out there and be part of the Baltimore community. 

In terms of being a collaborator with good neighbor, it's just genuine collaborations, you know?

good neighbor ends up being that space where the collaborations tend to happen pretty organically

, which is really nice. But it’s also about not being shy. If we're doing design week or design events and different people show out, I’m not shy about asking them, "Hey, we'd love to work together. We'll have to find a way to see your work in this light, you know? Or do you have any visions of your work in a space like this?"

There's so many people we want to collaborate with - and when the time is right, everything aligns.

A good example is our collaboration with 

. I've been a fan of hers for a long time. I saw her at a few different artist talks before I had good neighbor. But never really knew if she thought about anything at the store once it launched. And then all of a sudden, she shows up at an event, I said, "We'd love to work together." One thing led to another thing, and she has 

, and it’s cool how it all just comes together.


CR: How did this ethos influence the creation of 

 and what was it like to bring that concept to life?

For us, it’s one big design process. Same as with the coffee shop downstairs, or the design warehouse down the street - there's always two phases. There's the design side of it. And then we also run the whole construction process. And I should say, at the beginning, you’re also sitting there trying to figure out what the operational side of it would be, right? Then you have the visuals, the website, and the overall experience. In all of that, there’s both good and bad moments.

[With the construction] There’s hard moments, whether it's with the city or unexpected costs - things that we didn't know we needed, but now have to apply across seven rooms. Those are the moments where you think, is this going to be worth it? Because as a founder and owner, your brain is always on. And as someone who's part of the design of everything, you're on both sides of it. You're the client, but you're also the beneficiary. You're trying to fund up the project 

 trying to get your vision out as a creative person. And then invested in your vision surviving operationally, too.

Within all of that, the good is always there - how collaborations come together, how when you design something and envision people experiencing it, you can’t really see it all come together until it’s physically done. There’s all the happy mistakes, or little moments, where things turned out better than I even thought they would - where a collaboration is more fruitful than we expected, or the way Justin shoots something shows it in a new light. That’s the beauty of guesthouse, there are so many of those little gems in how it came together.

CR: And what are you hearing from guests? How is the guesthouse experience sitting with people who stay with you?

We hear that everybody, broadly speaking, is rested, recharged, and comfortable. At a foundational level, that's the goal, right?

 There's a high-mindedness that we have; we want people to be their best creative selves.

 That’s a tall order and not everyone might use that language around it, but we just want people to feel comfortable, because if they feel comfortable, they feel safe. From a brand perspective, that’s a really good place to be - to see what we’re providing as what it’s like to stay in a loved one’s home, a place where you’re really familiar. You’re loved and going to be taken care of. And we really feel like that’s how it’s being experienced.

CR: The buzz around guesthouse seems to have had a really positive impact on how the artistic community is perceived and highlighted in Baltimore. Can you both talk about what it’s been like to see the attention and positive press that good neighbor has brought to the city?

Definitely. My wife and I, we've been here for 12 years now. We thought we would be here for four years, and that's a lot of people's experience in Baltimore. You come for college, you come for school, or get a job for a little bit. And you say, "Okay, I'll move on after that." And then the way we were embraced by the community here, the way we made friends, the way we felt connected to the city - we felt like it was such a special place and that more people should build a life here. Build a family, you know? So our four years has now been 12 years and starting multiple businesses.

Of course we want good neighbor to be a positive for the city. 

We're using good neighbor as a platform to say, “Look at what you can do in Baltimore. Look at the beauty of Baltimore. In terms of brand, makers, press - look at what Baltimore creates. Look at its artists, makers, baristas, chefs - they’re creative people and look at what they create.” Baltimore is an intersection of arts and culture, and I think we’re in the middle of it. Our job is just to nurture that energy and be a safe place for it to grow.

We use design as our medium to bring people in. It has to be for everyone, and everyone, at some point, thinks about what they are going to eat or drink. So the coffee shop was our entry point. And in that journey of someone trying to get a coffee, we hope we can draw you into all the amazing things Baltimore has to offer.

For me, I'm a life-long resident of the city. I grew up here - well, Catonsville, specifically, but moved into the city proper 15 years ago.

Baltimore is so infinitely fascinating, because there's always this community that is ready to creatively thrive in the city. And the only reason that it doesn't happen is because there's systemic incentive to keep the status quo.

What I love about the centricity of good neighbor around creative community is that it shows you don't have to wait for anybody else to allow or grant permission to do a thing.

 We just need to be creative and as externally creative as you possibly can and the enjoy the outcomes that come from that. I think that the more people that see that, the more permission is granted, it’s an osmosis effect. Then more risk taking will happen, more audacity will happen, “more devil may care” will happen. And the populace at large will be unwilling to accept any less.

In the past five years, I've seen the city be more embracing around a creative culture, and really try to platform itself around a creative culture, more so than I’ve ever known in the entire time that I've lived in this area.

 We can’t trace that all to good neighbor of course, but I do think we play a role because we’re always giving ourselves license to say, “How can we be a platform for these creative individuals?”

There's a culture shift that is responding in kind, because either you're going to embrace that creative community that's thriving and growing, or you're going to be the ones left behind at the end of the day.

That's the right answer. That's the answer, hard copy.

CR: I love all of that. It’s so inspiring to all of us at Cohere, too.

Talk to us about the next phase of good neighbor, do you continue to expand your concepts?

Truthfully, we didn't see good neighbor doing all this. And maybe that was just naïve, but for me, it was just a lifelong itch to kind of figure out what I really wanted to do with my life.

 Anne and I both come from immigrant families; the priority was to get to these stable careers. We listened to them, and we saw their struggle, too. But there was always this itch.

With this space, this is what I wanted to see come to life. We love the team here and seeing everyone’s talents being used and showcased. For me, guesthouse is the extension of truly building our idea of “home” - it’s a natural extension of what we did at first. As we move forward, I’m excited to see what naturally ends up happening between collaborations and the platform we’ve built.

Cohere is a creative agency working with visionary founders, entrepreneurs, and makers on hospitality, culinary, and community ventures. This encompasses hospitality marketing, hotel brand identity and design, naming, menu and print collateral, social media, public relations, and creative advisory services.

A design-focused coffee shop, boutique hotel, and retailer that’s bringing true connectivity to the Baltimore arts and culture scene.

Unfiltered with Shawn Chopra and Justin Timothy Temple of good neighbor

While other cities imposed restrictions that impacted urban development, this city did things differently.

Our activity in Miami over the years has ranged from commercial property branding in Wynwood, to helping launch luxury real estate and 

. This range has given us the perspective of how unique the boom happening in Miami is right now, and why people should pay attention…

Elevated Properties, Restaurants and Retail

Miami has emerged as one of the hottest markets globally, boasting unparalleled growth and vitality in various sectors.

Here is what we are tracking and why we are bullish on the Magic City scene:


Miami’s High-End Residential Market is Ascendant


We’re watching records break in Miami with the luxury, prestige high-end real estate market:


 number one luxury residential real estate market in America

, surpassing even iconic cities like Los Angeles and New York City for the first time.

valuable residential city according to the New York Post

, which shows that the trend in migration south during COVID had extreme returns.

Miami reigns over Dubai and Las Vegas for luxury branded high rises - with more than a dozen luxury brand-affiliated buildings set to open in South Florida by 2024.

 It’s now the unofficial home of the branded building

, helped in large part by its international buying demographic. Porsche, Fendi, Missoni, Baccarat and even Major Food Group have developed high-end residential properties and the trend is growing. The New York Times chronicled the advancement of these branded buildings and their amenities and how it might impact a trend beyond South Florida.

The city's meteoric rise can be attributed in part to the remote work culture, which spurred a wave of transplants from major metropolitan areas like NYC - dubbed "the great COVID migration." This influx of talent and capital has injected dynamism into Miami's economy, fueling innovation and entrepreneurship.

Other cities are suffering from a retail bust, while Miami retail is booming.

Moreover, Miami's retail landscape is undergoing a renaissance unlike anywhere else in the world. Unlike other cities, Miami stayed open during the pandemic, and this kept proprietors in business or even better, in growth mode. Vibrant neighborhoods such as the Design District, Mimo, Wynwood, and Brickell have become sought-after destinations, attracting renowned brands and fostering a thriving consumer culture. Recent openings of 

flagship stores like Kith and Nike's innovative Rise

 concept shop underscore the city's status as a retail powerhouse.

Cohere is bullish on the scene, and rightfully so. We have major street cred right now having worked with Stephen Starr and Keith McNally to open Pastis.


Less than a year ago we helped open the exciting

with a bang. Unexpectedly, Stephen Starr chose Wynwood for the location of Pastis due to the neighborhood's vibrant and dynamic atmosphere, which aligns with the concept of the restaurant. Wynwood is known for its thriving arts and culture scene, making it an ideal setting for a trendy and stylish dining establishment like Pastis. Additionally, the area's mix of creative energy, street art, and diverse community appealed to Starr's vision for the restaurant, creating a unique and exciting destination for guests. The team had a lot of work on their hands outside of replicating the NYC version in this beautiful new space, hiring in a tough labor market and making sure that Miami residents and tourists knew the brand. And, they also had to convince people to go to Wynwood, rather than South Beach, Bal Harbour, Coconut Grove, or the high-end hotel scenes. The place has been packed, and we are honored to have played a small part in the Pastis Miami success.

Besides Pastis, we are now working on some luxury real estate, hotel and restaurant destination projects. You can catch us opening up our new office here, working on

Miami has emerged as one of the hottest markets globally, boasting unparalleled growth and vitality in various sectors.

Why is Miami One of the Hottest Markets in the World?

Successfully implement blue ocean strategies, creating new market spaces and leaving the competition behind.

Entrepreneurs often refer to it as the "fire in the belly" – a combination of intuition, passion, and belief in their ability to bring something unique to the market. Identifying what the world needs and how to address those gaps with a new venture requires thorough research. This involves studying existing players in the market to identify opportunities and evaluating the unmet consumer demand and market failures. Once a clear vision of the opportunity is established, it becomes crucial to look inward for innovative solutions. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs find themselves stuck in a cycle of following existing categories, resulting in variations of similarity rather than something truly original and exciting.

Too often I see entrepreneurs stuck in category contagion leading to 

Social media has had a significant impact over the past decade. For example, when a trendy café in a popular location gains attention on Instagram, 

similar versions start appearing in cities worldwide.

 This trend has led to a flattening of culture, resulting in fewer unique local expressions and making emerging neighborhoods feel more like shopping malls than vibrant centers of local creativity.

That helped us define ourselves in a blue ocean manner - trend setting, out in front, creating a new category ourselves.

Focusing too much on what others have done before can confine a brand and its founders.

 This often leads to mediocrity and a lack of originality, resulting in a dull and predictable outcome.

How do you break a category’s mold so that your brand is not boxed in?

 A better way of approaching one’s idea is to ask - “what feels right?” How will our choices, no matter how small, connect back to our core beliefs? By anchoring in a core belief system, we can decide whether an external model, behavior, or campaign by someone we admire might inspire our unique version.

The next step in this process is to think of your audience. Will this idea connect with them? Is the user experience aligned with our brand promises? Can we create moments of surprise and delight? How can we make key brand experiences uniquely ownable to us?

When a business can manifest their values through 

 that resonate with their guests in a profound way, it is gold. Replicating others, believing consumers will notice your version in a sea of sameness, is a sure path to mediocrity.

When developing Tender Greens, we tested various table settings that needed to align with our earth sensitivity and fine dining standards, while also being practical for high volume operations. Instead of settling for common options used in fast casual restaurants, we chose Hepp flatware, steelite plates, and stemless Reidel glasses, aligning our values with our customer promise and setting ourselves apart from the competition.

of defining a brand through its many details, guided by values and customer experience, led us to 

If you are an entrepreneur seeking to create something unique, look inside yourself first, then find inspiration from those around you. Find and fill the gaps in the market in order to differentiate your brand from the field. Then, execute better than anyone else.

AVOID SAMENESS - Break Category Rules with Your Brand

2023 was the year that killed restaurants.

We promised to get real this year with more useful content to our hospitality clients and we're starting with the most sensitive topic amongst the food brands in our community. "The Year that Killed LA Restaurants"  was the headline for The LA Times, chronicling 

 and the grueling, bleak look ahead as we enter 2024. And it's hardly confined to California - it's something we're seeing in every city. 

92% of operators say the cost of food is a significant issue 

 National Restaurant Industry)

Since revamping our online presence, our focus has shifted to creating meaningful content and sharing the authentic stories within our community. This year, we're delving into the challenges faced by our community members and collaboratively seeking creative solutions. Sadly, we've noticed troubling trends in financial struggles, closures, and pivots within the food industry.


The past few years have been rough thanks to 

 who caused a roar of supply chain issues and inflation, labor struggles and a shift in consumer behavior. Now that government assistance has ran out, restaurants are in trouble. This is why we launched a series of content to address the root causes, shared stories, solutions and inspiration, but mostly


The increase in food brands suffering from a deficit is growing. There is evidence of problems industry-wide.

We have watched our clients in food products, hospitality, restaurants, brick and mortar, and wholesale share a common trait that is impacting their growth potential. Even the most attractive brands are suffering quietly behind closed doors. The causes are never ending:

(in 2023 we saw on average vegan down 9%, fast casual down 20%)

sales are down causing difficulty in other areas of the biz

Economically speaking, consumers are in a 

, influencing how they discover your brand, perceive its value, and make purchases. It's crucial to shift your approach from backend to frontend. We've delved into these factors and strategies for this significant shift over the past few months.


The Cause:
There is a negative delta between the financial projections and the reality of the brand's books.

Food brands often end up strapped for cash because they kick-started their journey (or year) with inaccurate financial projections. The root cause? A lack of financial literacy and false promises based on old growth models. Nowadays, food brands are luring investors with grand visions of scalability, deviating from the old model of modest, independent startups. The issue? Many pitch decks paint an unrealistic picture, and that's a red flag. Scaling is proving tougher than expected, and struggling businesses need to face the truth instead of perpetuating a cycle of fundraising without addressing core problems. It's time for honesty and strategic rebuilding.

The era of rapid growth and massive paydays is fading. Investors, savvy and budget-conscious like the rest of us, are becoming more cautious with their money. Flashy projections may look good on graphs, but when actual business growth falls short, it leads to a 

. Big promises, desperate fundraising, cutbacks, quarterly struggles, repeat. The bubble in food and hospitality is bursting, mirroring the tech trend of unfulfilled returns.

This has been dubbed the 

 - both before the pandemic but especially since. Most know it as hockey stick growth. It goes something like this:

A company raises hundreds of millions of dollars and launches a new to the market concept that promises to “change the food system” →

Rapidly expands and gets buzzy press/social →

IPOs, achieving a big liquidity event for the original investors 

(Yet the sad reality is that most businesses don’t even achieve liquidity)

And yet, remains an unprofitable business

While we aspire for widespread change in food systems, it's crucial to acknowledge that food isn't like tech, with only rare exceptions. Check out 

Food Tank's list of 122 organizations driving change

 in the food system—few promise massive scale or attract millions in investment. Sadly, we observe many brands opting for quick fixes and poor leadership, rather than adopting sustainable practices for long-term success.

Here is what we predict to be the trend to break this cycle:

capital raised on honest conversations, smaller amounts for specific needs

less emphasis on categories, more on healthy brands and good leadership

healthy portion of capital generated by the business (rather than matching investors)


Unpopular opinion, but the right thing to do: focus on scaling 


From folks in the industry who are applying them real-time…

We need solutions so we started with our team member Advisor Chef Erik Oberholtzer, asking him how to break this cycle. 

 advises founders to “scale good behavior" - a less popular, but wise opinion. Establish profitability in your initial locations before seeking extensive investment to avoid the pitfalls of premature expansion. Stay true to your values, offer a unique product, and prioritize profitability, smart operations, and a distinctive "you factor" to prevent growth from becoming a perpetual struggle or leading to business failure.

. Tell your advisors, mentors and investors what is really going on, so that you can garner real advice. Jot down the offerings they share and become a student to rebuilding your brand. The food system is relying on you!

Let's ditch false promises, embrace vulnerability, and rebuild our brands together—because the food system is relying on us.


From Downturn to Solutions: How the Food Industry Can Thrive in 2024

Independent brands in the hospitality and real estate sector help shape the landscape of our towns, cities, and built environment in an evergreen way. 

This creative community builds and shapes the inspiring environments that are a part of our everyday lives. From the cup of coffee we get in the morning, to the places we call home, to the gathering spaces that we create lifelong memories in - we are beyond grateful for your partnership
this year.


Together, here’s where we moved the needle:

Thank you for believing in the power of the creative class and joining along as we leave a shared impact.

"Cohere are an amazing, talented team - thoughtful creative partners, responsive professionals, wise advisors, good citizens, and kind humans." 

2023 Growth + Impact

Seawall and Thibault Manekin in Baltimore are becoming synonymous with doing real estate development differently. In recent years, they've launched community driven food and beverage concepts, after many years of creating affordable housing for teachers and collaborative office space for nonprofits. Along the way, they haven't shied away from engaging in complicated conversations about how to ensure that the communities they work in are the ones driving the change that they want to see.

Despite coming from a well-known mid-Atlantic real estate family, Thibault, along with his father Donald Manekin, started 

 in 2007 with no first-hand development experience - with the vision that land and buildings should bring people together, not divide them (as they often do). Since then, Seawall has delivered projects totaling more than $250,000,000 in Baltimore and beyond - including R. House, the transformed Lexington Market, residential projects like Remington Row and Miller’s Court, and public charter schools like Green Street Academy and Baltimore Design School. Their impact is felt deeply in the communities where they work (and 

Alongside all of that, Thibault is known for leading from the heart; Baltimore Magazine 

 “the eternal optimist,” and he published a book in 2021 called 

 Cohere Partner Chris Richards sat down at Seawall’s Remington office in December 2023 to chat about it all.

We’re sitting here in Seawall’s office in Remington in central Baltimore City, right on Howard Street, across from what I believe was Seawall’s first project at Miller’s Court. Think of Seawall as a whole. Describe yourself and the company, the mission behind it. What do you think you're trying to solve in the real estate industry? Why was Seawall created?

Without going too far back, I've spent my entire life trying to understand why we're so divided as human beings. And what are the creative ways that we can bridge those divides. Those questions led me around the world to work in some of the most divided places on earth [with 

]. I really came to understand the importance of showing up humbly without pretending to have the answers to anything - always having more questions than answers.

I ended up back in Baltimore unexpectedly in 2006 on the corner of Pennsylvania and North Avenue. A part of town that I'd been made to believe my entire life that I wasn't welcome in and wouldn't be safe in. Right or wrong, that's the narrative that was shared with me about that part of West Baltimore. And I had learned from my experiences living abroad that when we listen to the narrative that everyone else shares, we're limiting our ability to find the answers to the questions that are the deepest in our hearts. It's only on the other side of our comfort zones that those answers can even begin to be found.

And so I began to walk around the community that day and 

 One is that America, and particularly Baltimore, is more divided than these so-called "war-torn countries" where I’d just spent so much time and energy. And two, the real estate industry, the control and ownership of land, is the most powerful connected industry on the planet. It touches every single one of us, every single moment, of every single day. And most of the time we're not aware of it. Yet, with that power and connectivity, real estate's done more to divide us and keep us apart historically than it has to bring us together

I also hold this belief that every generation, and certainly the younger generations, have this responsibility to re-imagine industries, to take things the way the world's known to be one way, and completely flip them upside down, where we can be more in service of our purpose than anything else. And so I got with my Dad [Donald Manekin], and we began to ask ourselves some key questions. Those questions were around how can we start a company that really re-imagines the real estate industry, so that buildings are used to empower communities, unite cities, and help to launch really powerful ideas?

CR: How has that original mission grown or evolved since you started?

I've always wanted to make sure that the work that I did was in alignment with my purpose in life

, which is to find the answer to that question [about why we’re all so divided]. And I found a way to do that with a sports organization around the world. And then, to try to find a way to do that with the real estate industry was even more exciting. Because as I think about broken industries, industries that have been driven by profit at all costs, this one out of almost any of them felt the most right for reimagining. And I also want to say, we are standing on the shoulders of giants who have done this work way before we even thought about doing it; I'm thinking of the late Jim Rouse here in Baltimore, Bill Struever, many others. We’re far from pioneering anything here. But speaking for all of us, I do think we feel really good about the reason that we're showing up to this work. 

CR: It’s not a unique thought, but harder to put into practice - shaping your career around something that you can be passionate about.

TM: These are clearly questions that I think about a lot. And I think we've attracted this incredible group that deeply connects to our core questions - and has added questions of their own along the way.

One of the things that's been really important to us is 

we actually rarely hire anybody with real estate experience

. You know, when you're setting out to re-imagine something, you don’t want people with 10, 20 years of real estate experience; they'd come in with a preconceived notion of what real estate was and is meant to be.

So, when you hire incredible writers, journalists, former teachers, social workers, event planners, it becomes kind of a blank canvas, right? 

We bring our lived experiences to this idea of approaching real estate in a different way. And I think that's been a huge part of the culture that's been created here, to bring people in with really fresh perspectives who weren't grounded in what real estate's always meant.

 reporting (that Cohere helped build). Not a lot of developers are doing this. What are you measuring and why take this step?

TM: My experience for the first 10 years of my professional career was in the nonprofit sector. And in the nonprofit sector, on a daily basis, you were out there raising large sums of money to deliver very specific impact-driven work that in some way is going to change the way the world turns for the better, right? And that's a lofty f*cking statement. And a hard question to ask if you don't deeply believe in it; your credibility will only get you so far. To be able to back that work up with impact-driven data makes the ask the next time, and the next time, so much easier.

So, to a certain extent, it's been a part of our DNA to think about impact. We always knew that it was going to be really important to be able to show those results and not just tell them. We've been doing this work for over 15 years now, and it's been very anecdotal up until this point. We all work very closely on these projects and in this neighborhood, and any of us can stand up and talk about the impact we’ve had on teachers, nonprofits, and diverse small businesses.

But now what we’re doing is translating that into more statistical data that helps tell the story in a clearer way. 

We never speak in dollars. We speak in impact.

 We tell the stories that people tell us, of how the buildings that they live and work in have changed their lives, have changed the way they show up to the kids in their classrooms, changed their ability to create generational wealth for their families, and so on.

Now, we're just adding a layer to that, which is diving more into the statistical side of it to back up the anecdotal side.

CR: Yes - I feel like that approach has been infused across your projects from the start, definitely since I started interacting with them. They all stand out as more than real estate investments.

TM: That's a good call out. When you read our pitch decks or if you were sitting in any of the presentations that we give to investors, it always starts with the purpose behind the project. 

It's always the story of the problem that we're trying to solve for.

We want to surround ourselves with like-minded people and investors who are first and foremost focused on the health of the communities and cities that we live and work in.

 For us, that's specifically Baltimore. And it has been really helpful to have been able to align ourselves with people who think with 

 But I do want to really call out the importance of ensuring that the work that we do is profitable, you know? We are a for-profit entity - not a nonprofit. 

When young developers come in and ask us how we do it, I share that we are certainly very purpose-driven. But it is a beautiful reminder every step of the way that if the work that you do doesn't make economic sense, doesn't pencil out, then you won't be doing the work anymore. And then you lose the tool that allows you to be in service of your purpose, right?

So in the beginning, for me, that was basketball. It was one thing to go around saying that basketball can bridge divides and ask for a bunch of money to help us do that. But if we weren't the greatest basketball program in every country that we showed up to, then we would lose participants, we would lose coaches, and the program would fold. Then we’d lose that tool to bridge divides.

Same thing with real estate. If we're not building the greatest buildings around, an incredibly attractive space, an inspiring space, then it's not going to lease. And we're going to lose the ability to serve our purpose.

 So it's that beautiful balance of how you ensure that the purpose drives the work that you do, with the profit supporting it.

CR: Right - we hear a lot of pitches and plans from developers too. And I know for me, it’s a big flag if only “purpose” or only “profit” is driving the why. It’s a balance. How do you think about that?

Love is a word that isn't used enough today - especially in real estate. 

We always say that designing, financing, and building these projects is the easy part. Ensuring that the buildings have soul, and maintaining their soul, and ensuring that the buildings are filled with love are the differentiators.

To us, it's no surprise that R. House has become this Baltimore institution. In our minds, at no point in time was it ever just a food hall. It was a place to create community. In the beginning, it was a place to help small businesses launch important ideas. And that’s the reason why there's a waiting list of vendors to get in, and that there are no empty stalls, and that we're doing more volume than we did before the COVID pandemic - because we've maintained our soul. And, because every decision that gets made there is from a place of love, and I think that's what attracts people and vendors into the space.

It's the same way that we manage all of these buildings, whether it's for teachers, or nonprofits, or the workforce, or small businesses. 

The soul and love - that I think, is the biggest differentiator that we have to offer.

CR: I want to ask about the term "gentrification", the elephant in the room when it comes to real estate. It’s often framed as improving an area for some and not for others, or changing the character of an area in a way that leaves some behind. How does Seawall think about gentrification?

And I am not a fan of the actual word gentrification, especially in a city like Baltimore, where there's tens of thousands of vacant abandoned properties.

We have a responsibility as people who love this city to deeply invest in every corner of Baltimore, to wake up hoping that we can drive through streets where there isn't a single vacant boarded up property, let alone blocks and blocks of them. Anything short of that is a disservice.

Of the incredible young real estate developers that come meet with us, every single one of them wants to deliver what has happened in Remington to their community. They want their version of R. House, for better or for worse. Nobody wants vacant homes in their communities. Everybody wants access to jobs. Everybody wants significant investment in bringing companies and local small businesses to their neighborhoods.

And at face value, that is gentrification. But when you hear it from people all over Baltimore and they're all wanting the same thing, that word gets complicated. So, the word that we're focused on is "displacement.” 

How can we ensure that we deliver all of those things that communities are asking for - jobs, housing, community amenities - without displacing the legacy residents that have counted on that neighborhood to be their home, shelter, and place of peace for generations? That's the dance.

 And so we will quickly change the subject from gentrification, because I think it makes people feel guilty about significant investment in making things nice, and instead pivot to ask, "How can we help bring great things and limit displacement?"

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