Q&A with WNBA star-turned-developer Devereaux Peters
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Amid a flurry of downtown development, Devereaux Peters says she wants to make sure her project puts the community’s needs at the forefront.
The former University of Notre Dame women’s basketball standout is taking up development in her retirement from the WNBA where she played for the Indiana Fever, Phoenix Mercury and Minnesota Lynx, with which she won two league championships. Her Monreaux project is expected to bring 60 new low-income and market rate apartments to the former “Fat Daddy’s” site at the corner of Michigan and Monroe streets in downtown South Bend.
Peters has already secured state tax credits and a city economic development loan to assist in financing the project which is expected to bring more than $13.7 million in private investment downtown. Peters says she expects to close on the land, currently owned by the city, this spring.
As South Bend leaders begin down a path of downtown planning, Inside INdiana Business talked to the Chicago-native about her transition from basketball to development, working on her first projects and choosing to invest in South Bend.
You’ve gone from basketball to business? What drew you into development?
When I was playing, I always had an interest in real estate but I didn’t really have a lot of knowledge about the different areas of the industry. Like a majority of people, when you think of real estate, you think of a realtor—somebody that’s selling homes and helping people buy homes. So, when I retired, I decided I wanted to be in real estate because that’s the only arena I knew. I got my real estate license and signed with Berkshire Hathaway and became a realtor. My first eight months post-retirement were spent being a realtor and I absolutely hated it. I was miserable.
With basketball and just sports in general, there’s a lot of quick turnarounds and things happen very fast, especially once you get to the high level that I was playing at. You have this instant gratification where you make a play, you get a good defensive stop, you score and if things aren’t going right, you know what to do to immediately fix it and you know when to get in the gym and how to address issues. And, you know that if you continuously do those things, you’re going to immediately see results. It’s just how it works. That is not the case in real life.
That was a hard transition for me in that I was used to doing what I was supposed to do and immediately seeing those results. In real estate, that’s not the case. I was doing all the things that my boss was telling me to do and that other realtors that are very successful were telling me to do, and I could not get clients and I was absolutely miserable. I hated it. I was just like ‘I’m doing all this work and everybody’s telling me I’m doing the right things, and I’m just not seeing anything come to fruition.’
So, after eight months, I decided I didn’t want to be a realtor anymore, but I still wanted to be in real estate. But, I didn’t know what that looked like or what that meant, and I just kind of got lucky. I was out running errands one day and I ran into a high school teammate of mine and we ended up going to get lunch and we were just catching up, talking about what we’re doing, and I’m telling her I’m a realtor, but I want to be somewhere else, but I’m just not sure where. And so she goes, ‘You know I have a family friend that I think you should meet.’ So, she introduces us and he’s a developer and so we end up kind of just discussing what he does. He’s focused on low-income housing, and as we talk he’s kind of like explaining to me how the process works and how they get these buildings built and how they get the funding, just at a very, very basic level.
We spent some weeks meeting and he felt like I was picking it up fairly quickly and understanding it in a way that most of the people that he’s talked to didn’t understand it. So, he was like, ‘You know, I feel like this is something you can get into and based on our conversations, it seems like a better fit than where you are now, so if you want to come into development, I can mentor you to show you the ropes and how this works.’ And that’s what ended up happening. He became a mentor and helped me start with this project that we are now hopefully going to be in the ground next year.
Tell me about some of your projects more broadly and how you go about choosing a project to invest in?
Initially, for me, South Bend was an easy choice for two reasons. One, development is a lot about relationships and it’s about making connections, whether it’s with city officials or it’s with the community, so you understand what their needs are. It’s very much propped up with building relationships and having relationships, and I felt that I had a lot stronger connections in South Bend than I did in Chicago, just because I hadn’t been there in a long time and with playing, I was never really home. Quite frankly, I probably spent a lot more time in South Bend than I did in Chicago during my off time because I have a lot more friends and people that I care about there.
Secondly, I just felt that in my time at Notre Dame, it was a hard transition for me. You’re young and you’re trying to figure out how to mature and be an adult and really growing into womanhood and understanding what that means. It was a very difficult time for me and I just felt that the community and the people there in the surrounding areas really embraced me and helped form this cocoon around me in this safe space so that I could really mature and grow up to what I really needed to be and what I needed to get there. So, I’m always very appreciative of South Bend for that and just the way the community enveloped me and cared about me, and so this was a way for me to kind of give back to that and show appreciation for that.
In general, when it comes to picking where I’m working—because I am working on two developments here in Chicago and then also a dance theater in Chicago as well—for me, again, it’s about the relationship. The first iteration of this project that I’m doing in South Bend was in a different neighborhood. I ended up having a community meeting with that neighborhood and they didn’t want the project there, so I ended up spending maybe a year and a half working on that and then ended up having to move it to where it is now, which I think is a better place. I think the community is a lot more appreciative in wanting it there.
That was a learning experience for me because I think I went into it thinking ‘I have this idea and I have this concept that I want to put out there,’ but in actuality you really have to understand what the people want and need first. It can’t be what you think is best for them and what your ideas are. It has to be based and rooted in what that community particularly needs, and nobody knows that more than the people that are there.
When it came to building out this project, that was the first step. It was meeting with council members, it was meeting with the mayor’s office, it was meeting with community leaders, and really discussing, ‘Where do you think the gaps are right now, and what are the things that you guys feel you need most, so that I can address that in this building?’ Because that’s the route that I took, and now the route that I take when figuring out what developments I want to work on, they’re a lot more supportive and there’s a simpler process and trying to get it through, and figuring out how to get it done.
Tell me more about the Monreaux and what parts were important for you to include in the project.
My concept with this building was really based on what I’ve lived in in my career. In the WNBA, we’re put in housing that’s paid for by the team, and we’re put in apartments. Some of the best apartments that I’ve been in when playing were because they were located centrally, they’re easy to get to the gym or downtown. One of the best places I’ve ever lived in was in Minnesota. It was in this neighborhood called St. Louis Park. It was literally across the street from a grocery store. It was right next to this center that had a movie theater. It had stores. It had all types of things, restaurants. So, literally from my apartment, I could walk to anywhere or anything I needed. There was a Costco across the street. There were just so many resources there and it was so easy to get around. There was a fitness center in the apartment building. There was a barbecue area and an open area and a pool and you just have all these resources where you don’t have to do a lot to get what you need.
And, I think that’s something we don’t always see in low-income housing, so something that I really wanted to push for in this building — which to be honest, it has been a fight because it’s not cheap to do those things. There’s a reason why market rate can afford all those things and low-income can’t—but I really wanted to have a high focus on amenities. The location and having the resources to downtown South Bend—which they’ve done an amazing job of, the city has, of restoring the downtown area and doing a lot of revitalization there—so, making sure low income tenants have access to that.
Then, also we’re doing live/work units on the first floor. They’re for entrepreneurs in small businesses to be able to have some commercial space, because that’s another issue. Commercial space is extremely expensive, and a lot of these small business owners may need that, but they can’t afford it. But then, at the same time, especially right now, we have all this commercial space that’s unused. All these cities want to do the first floor commercial. They want to have the buildings that have the first floor commercial so it’s walkable. They have residential upstairs and make it convenient for the tenants, but nobody’s filling up these commercial spaces. And yet, at the same token, we have all these people that are now entrepreneurs. There’s this huge movement to be your own boss and have small businesses, and people can’t afford those spaces, so they’re just sitting vacant.
So, that was something that we really wanted to take into account, too, was that we want this walkability as a city, but how do we do it in a way where we can actually get these units used and rented out, but also support the community as well. That’s probably one of my favorite parts of this project and what I’m most looking forward to seeing is how that pans out and how we’re able to sustain it and if it really helps people uplift their business.
The project has recently won state tax credits and city tax abatements. What is it like to see others buy into your vision?
It’s amazing because I’ve been on the other side as well. So, it’s great to be on this side where people are supportive, but that’s just a testament to how much work we put in on the front end and making sure that it was something that was necessary and they needed it and mirrored what they were looking for in their neighborhood. It’s been a fun process. It’s been amazing to work with the city of South Bend. They’re awesome and really have put in so much work to make this a possibility.
Development is very difficult right now, just because of interest rates and how construction costs are really high, so it’s very difficult to get these deals done, period, regardless of tax credits and that whole process outside of that, which is also difficult. Just, in general, it’s hard to get deals done, and they just have been so supportive and so helpful, and you can really see that they want to see this done, and so to be quite frank, they’ve been a huge, huge help in getting it to this point because they clearly want it to get done. And, whenever I need help with something or I hit a roadblock, they’re there to assist and see what they can do to make sure that we get through this.
What are you learning about development through working on this project?
I’ve learned so much and it’s a very, very large learning curve in development. There’s just so much to know. My mentor, he’s been in this business for 30-plus years, so he knows practically everything at this point. And, I feel like I know a fingernail worth of information compared to what he knows. But one of the nice things about it is that he really throws me into the fire. He trusts that I’m capable and really has me do a lot of work. I was actually just having this conversation the other day with somebody and saying how I come to some of these meetings and because I’m young and people know I’m new in this space, people just assume that I don’t know anything because I’m new here and I’m trying to understand. But, no, this information that I just sent you, I did myself, because he makes me do it. I think people just assume because of his background and what he’s done that he just does all my work for me and I just send it out with my name and that’s what it is. And, I’m like no, I actually have to do this stuff.
It’s shocking that we can get through this far and I may have more understanding than some people at you know this phase have, but it’s because he’s just thrown me in the fire and been like, ‘Figure it out.’ And, that’s what I have to do, which is difficult at times and frustrating at times, but it’s also a great learning tool. I’ve been able to learn a great deal and I’ve also built some very good relationships in this space where people have been very kind and engaging and helping me along this path and figuring things out, because I don’t know everything and I’m not going to for some time. It’s going to take time for me to build this knowledge out and work through a lot of things. I’ve met a lot of people that have just been very, very supportive and helpful in this journey of figuring things out and learning this process and getting more information and so I can become a much better developer.
There’s been a cluster of new activity to bring housing to downtown South Bend. What’s it like to be a part of that movement?
In that particular corner, there’s three different developments happening outside of mine, as well as a block away there’s another development that’s being built. There’s a lot of revitalization just in that very small area, which I’m very excited about because all of that is going to bolster each of us and our projects, and we’ll be able to really support each other and help each other. One of them is going to be a restaurant. There’s some artists lofts and some commercial space that’s being built out, and some more housing. I think we’ll be able to uplift each other.
I’ve met a lot of those developers as well and they’re all awesome. We’ve built this group that’s just supporting each other, making sure we’re updating on how things are going and trying to assist where we can, so it’s been really cool to be a part of that just because it’s all happening at once. Once we all kind get our projects up and running, it’ll be cool to see that area thrive.
The baseball stadium down the street, they’re going to get the upper deck, so they got a lot of money to do that. So, I just think it’s really cool to be a part of this redevelopment effort and just so many good things going on, especially with them announcing the community investment plan for downtown, so there’s even more focus on getting more things done. So, I just think it’s very cool to be a part of that process, but also I’m really excited to see the growth of that area and how it affects the city because it’s not just me. It’s just so many people that are dedicated to making that area so much better.
What’s next for you in the future?
I do have a couple of projects in the pipeline. I’m not one to kind of sit around and wait. Like I said earlier, we are working on a dance theater for Black dancers coming here in Chicago. That’s going to be on the south side, and we’re hoping to close around the same time we close on my building. So, I’m working on that and then there’s two other residential developments that I’m working on that hopefully we’ll be able to apply for tax credits for in 2024 and 2025. I’m young and don’t have any kids or anything, so I’m out here just trying to get a lot of work done. I just want to keep it moving in and keep trying to get good projects going.