Nice to meet you!
Hi, I’m Shayla (Shay) Sellars. I’m the Founder and Managing Director of The Emerge Group, a real estate practice working across acquisition, planning, development, and land stewardship.
For more than 17 years, I’ve worked across commercial real estate acquisition, underwriting, development, project management, asset management, and investment. I founded SASRE Properties in 2013 and later 21 South Capital. Those experiences ultimately shaped the work I lead today through The Emerge Group.
I was born and raised in the South Carolina Lowcountry and have lived and worked in New York since 2003.
There are countless real estate social media advisors who teach others the way to win in the real estate business. It is less likely that you will find these same advisors sharing the ways they have failed, on the way to their success. This blog page was created to share with my peers, other optimistic real estate entrepreneurs, the ways things can also go terribly wrong and the ways in which you can guide yourself out of those moments. The hope is that the stories here offers some insight and encouragement as you navigate situations that are not taught in schools. Before we get into it, here’s a little more about me.
SASRE Properties, LLC
2013 – Current
SASRE Properties is a place-making and redevelopment firm with a focus on revitalizing challenged cities and towns. We are committed to building communities from within communities. We organize value-add and opportunistic real estate investment opportunities, participate in curating renewed retail streetscapes, and facilitate idea exchange among real estate and creative entrepreneurs who have diverse backgrounds but a shared passion for change. Or work is carried about by offering brokerage, construction management and advisory services.
21 South Capital
2020 – Current
The mission of 21 South Capital is to take part in creative real estate projects located in communities of color, as well as stand in the gap, in order to allow black and brown people access to neighborhoods and cities which they have been historically excluded from living or creating within.
We will carry out this mission by investing, developing, brokering, sourcing impactful real estate opportunities and investing in the individuals and companies that will bring cultural and intellectual capital into these spaces.
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When I’m not “working” I spend a lot of time watching films, reading non-fiction literature, or taking short road trips. During the week I will sometimes pop into a gallery exhibition. Above all of these things, I love spending time with my 5 year old daughter. She’s pretty much my everything.
I attended the following schools: NYU Tish (Film & TV), The New School (Management & Urban Policy), Howard University (Graduate Business School), NYU Schack (Real Estate Development). These schools were great but my real life education has been the most comprehensive school for how I learn best.