The foreclosure crisis that swept through Cleveland left behind more than abandoned homes – it created a landscape of empty lots and a rare opportunity for developers willing to approach urban renewal differently. Jermaine Brooks and his partners at WRJ Developers saw these vacant parcels as the foundation for a new kind of affordable housing, using shipping containers as the building blocks.
From Gridiron to Real Estate
Brooks’ entry into real estate began in 1999, shortly after being cut from several NFL teams and graduating from Eastern Michigan University. Like many young athletes, he had heard casual advice to “buy real estate” but lacked practical knowledge of the field.
“I reached out to one of my fraternity brothers who was a mortgage broker. He said, ‘I got a couple deals for you, come into the office,’” Brooks recalls. “I came in and bought five properties that day – stated income, signed, sealed, delivered.”
The aggressive strategy quickly backfired when the market collapsed. “Every one of those loans was adjustable. My payments jumped from $500 to $900 or $1,000. I lost those five properties really quick,” he says. But the experience sparked a lasting interest in real estate that would define his career.
Building on the Wreckage
The 2008 foreclosure crisis hit Cleveland especially hard, but also created opportunities for those able to navigate distressed assets. Through contacts made during the downturn, Brooks began working with hedge funds acquiring properties in bulk from banks eager to offload “toxic assets.”
“They had a big spreadsheet. These hedge funds were buying them in bulk, sight unseen, just turning and burning,” Brooks says.
When a hedge fund partner told Brooks they couldn’t move properties in Cleveland, he saw a chance. “He said, ‘If you can get rid of anything in Cleveland, we don’t want it.’ I looked at the prices – $200, $300 – and asked, ‘How much do you want?’ He said, ‘That’s all we want. Anything over that is yours.’”
This arrangement allowed Brooks and his brother to build a portfolio of nearly 60 properties before the hedge fund partners exited the market, leaving Brooks with hands-on experience in property management and renovation.
Forming WRJ Developers
In 2019, Brooks reconnected with childhood friends Willie Levy and Richard Singleton, who had also been investing in Cleveland real estate. The three decided to join forces after Levy’s success with opportunity zone projects in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
“Willie said, ‘We’re killing it in D.C. with opportunity zones. We know there are opportunity zones in Cleveland. Let’s replicate that here,’” Brooks explains. “We pooled our assets. Instead of working alone, we decided to do something bigger in the community.”
WRJ Developers takes its name from the founders’ first names: Willie, Richard, and Jermaine.
Seizing the Land Opportunity
The foreclosure crisis and subsequent Neighborhood Stabilization Program led to widespread demolition throughout Cleveland, creating numerous vacant lots. For WRJ, these empty parcels offered a unique advantage.
“We started going down streets where only five houses were left and the rest was vacant land,” Brooks notes. “We realized the only thing they’re never going to make more of is land. That was the opportunity.”
Timing worked in their favor. “You could get land for really cheap – $150, $200 per parcel, as long as you had a plan,” Brooks says.
Pivoting to Container Construction
WRJ initially focused on traditional multi-family construction, but rising building costs and the onset of COVID-19 made conventional methods less feasible. Research into modular construction led the team to shipping containers.
“We were getting numbers back, and the numbers just didn’t work with new construction,” Brooks says. “We had our own crews, mechanical teams. We’d renovated over 300-400 houses ourselves. If we could get the structure and foundation there, we knew we could finish it.”
Shipping containers offered several advantages for Cleveland: local availability, cost control, and energy efficiency. “There are sites we drive past all the time and see containers stacked up,” Brooks observes. “Everything can be done in the warehouse – fabrication, cutting out the walls. Once they’re brought to the site, they can be stacked in a day.”
Finding the Right Site
After their first project encountered political resistance, WRJ found their current development site by chance. Leaving Cleveland City Hall, having been told their initial plan needed to relocate, they saw a shipping container near Gordon Square Park on East 72nd Street.
“Richard said, ‘Let’s just pivot. Let’s go shipping container,’” Brooks recalls. The area reminded them of Cleveland’s west side, which had seen successful development. “We said this could be Edgewater of the East—there’s Edgewater Park on the west side on 73rd Street. Why can’t this be Edgewater of the east on 72nd?”
Despite the challenges in the neighborhood, WRJ recognized the value in the location’s proximity to Lake Erie, Gordon Park, and major transportation corridors, providing access to University Circle and Cleveland’s medical district.
Overcoming Development Hurdles
Transitioning from home renovation to ground-up development proved more complex than expected. “With renovations, it was simple: you get the house, rehab it, rent it out or flip it,” Brooks says. “On the development side, you have to sell your idea to a board, take feedback, get community input, and secure city approval.”
Their first significant setback came when a city council member initially approved their plans but later decided he wanted the project elsewhere – a lesson that cost WRJ $35,000 to $40,000.
Building Community Support
Adapting to early setbacks, WRJ made community engagement a priority. They partnered with Three Squared, a Detroit-based company with experience in container construction, and worked closely with local community development corporations.
“Through feedback from the city and the planning process, they wanted more density in the area,” Brooks says. “Everybody was on board with rentals.”
Creative Financing Strategies
Securing financing proved to be one of the biggest obstacles. “We thought just because we had the pretty picture and the story, banks would open the doors. That’s not how it works,” Brooks says.
WRJ addressed the challenge through multiple strategies: partnering with the Famicos Foundation as a 30% co-developer, securing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, and obtaining pre-development grants from community development associations. They also invested in due diligence, completing surveys, soil tests, market studies, and architectural plans before seeking larger funding commitments.
Proof of Concept and Next Steps
To demonstrate their model, WRJ built their first duplex out of pocket, which became the first residential multi-family shipping container project in Ohio. The successful completion of this unit established credibility with lenders and proved the viability of their approach.
This project is not just about innovative construction, it’s a strategy to revitalize a neighborhood that hadn’t seen new development in decades and to provide affordable housing in a city still recovering from the foreclosure crisis.
For developers working in post-industrial cities facing similar challenges, WRJ’s experience highlights the importance of adaptive reuse, community involvement, and flexible financing when traditional models no longer work. Their approach offers a practical template for turning urban blight into opportunity, one container at a time.
