from “le détroit” · the strait
Chase L. Cantrell founded Building Community Value about a decade ago to help Detroiters invest in and develop property in their own neighborhoods, with a majority of its participants and alumni Black women.
Chase L. Cantrell left his job as a real estate attorney in 2016 to start Building Community Value, a Detroit nonprofit that trains residents to develop real estate in their own neighborhoods. The bet is simple and stubborn: Detroiters cannot fully invest in their city's future without a literal stake in its land.
Ten years in, the model has a name and a classroom. The course is called Better Buildings, Better Blocks, run at TechTown Detroit and developed with the University of Michigan. It walks people who have never closed a deal through the real work of small development, from financing and permits to hiring contractors and running the math on a rehab.
Who shows up says a lot about the city. Sixty percent of participants and alumni are Black women, and Cantrell has a plain read on why. "It's almost intuitive because a lot of women end up being caregivers," he said. About 75 percent of participants pursue single-family homes and duplexes, the scale of a block instead of a skyline.
The argument underneath the class is civic. "For people's sense of civic participation in the city, they have to feel like they own something," Cantrell said. "Detroiters care about Detroit. People who live in their neighborhoods care about their neighborhoods."
He measures progress by momentum, not finished punch lists. "When that first house on the block is rehabbed, it begins to change the dynamic," he said. "To me, success doesn't necessarily mean that someone has completed a project."
The graduates carry weight of their own. Christopher LeFlore came through the program and is now an associate program officer for the Kresge Foundation's Detroit Program, the philanthropy that recently profiled BCV's decade of work.
BCV is small by design. Its most recent IRS filing, submitted November 1, 2025 for fiscal year 2024, reports $386,387 in revenue and $259,069 in total assets. The organization has held 501(c)(3) status since July 2017. That is a lean budget for a decade of graduates, which is close to the point: the equity is meant to land with residents, not the nonprofit.
The next cohort of Better Buildings, Better Blocks runs September 12 to December 12, 2026. Applications close August 28, 2026.
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