Most residents want to see their neighborhoods and surrounding communities thrive. Some of them might even have good ideas to spark positive change. With programs like the
Community Economic Development Association (CEDAM)’s Real Estate Development Boot Camp program, these ideas can serve as a true catalyst for community development.
The
CEDAM Boot Camp program addresses community needs by providing developers, stakeholders and community residents with training and tools. The program’s origins date back to the start of the nonprofit membership association, launched to build a pipeline of affordable housing developers across the state, says Emily Reyst, CEDAM director of communications and housing initiatives.
“I manage our housing development team," she says. "We focus on training emerging developers to engage in community-focused real estate development, work with our policy team to help remove barriers, and we’re also focused on connecting developers to resources and helping them understand agency programs and how they align and work together."
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Photo by Doug Coombe.Emily Reyst is the director of communications and housing initiatives at CEDAM. Reyst says the Boot Camp format has taken many shapes and forms over the decades, including the core urban boot camp format and a rural boot camp option for smaller communities.
“The goal of the boot camp training is to have primarily developers, but also folks from foundations, investors, consultants, community members, and anybody that could be engaged in or has a stake in the development process from start to finish,” Reyst says. “The goal is that we have folks working together on actual projects that the emerging developers bring, and they pitch those to a funding panel at the end so they have action steps to take after in order to make that project happen.”
Boot Camp has provided new staff members at nonprofit organizations, stakeholders, equity investors, municipal leaders, and community residents with a foundation for community development. The program helps deliver an understanding of just what it takes to transform affordable housing and community-centered projects from ideas to completion. This passion-driven work can be complicated and difficult, but understanding the full-picture of the mission helps prompt program changes, additional technical assistance, and more conversation of how municipalities can make the process better.
Not only does the curriculum share knowledge and industry expertise, but it also shows participants the importance of building connections.
“We really pride ourselves in having really strong relationships with people who invest in affordable housing, and are really passionate about the work,” Reyst says. “One of the most valuable things about Boot Camp is that we allow people so much hands-on, one-on-one time with folks who could be your next funder or partner to bring your development dream to existence.”
Reyst is proud of the legacy the boot camp has had since its inception, and the reputation built over the years as being a critical professional development training. In recent years, the program has expanded its curriculum to include a focus not solely on large scale, multi-family housing, but also to community members who are inspired to create change in their neighborhoods.
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Courtesy photo.Emily Reyst, CEDAM, showcased far right at a previous Boot Camp conference.
“We’re starting to get a lot more folks who might not even call themselves developers yet, but we hope that they do someday,” Reyst says. “They’re coming to boot camp, meeting all the right people and leaving boot camp, then we hear they’re still talking to somebody like IFF, Cinnaire, or Walker & Dunlop, who are equity investors helping them along with their project. That is really all we could ask for is that the connections we make at our training continue well-beyond the week they spend with us.”
The program has also had a tangible impact on past participants — some students have gone on to become presenters in later years. They often cite the Boot Camp as a pivotal moment, serving as a launching pad for their careers.
“We’re so lucky that we have people that show up who are really passionate and imaginative, who ask all the right questions,” Reyst says. “Then six years later, they position themselves as experts in the field, have a lot of work to show for it, and they want to come back and teach people what they’ve learned along the way.”
For Jubek Yongo-Bure, attending the real estate Boot Camp inspired the entrepreneur’s next journey,
Jumi Consulting Group, founded in 2021. The Detroit boutique consulting firm works to create place-based solutions enabling people, businesses and communities to thrive with projects across residential, commercial, mixed-use new construction, acquisition rehab developments and more.
Collaborating with clients on community development projects utilizing urban planning principles, the Detroit firm makes a global impact. No matter the project, Yongo-Bure, the Founder and Principal of Jumi Consulting Group’s goal is the same: to develop communities that thrive.
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Courtesy photo.Jubek Yongo-Bure is the founder and principal of Jumi Consulting Group in Detroit.
Yongo-Bure has a background in urban development, and previously worked for a developer in the City of Detroit. Her consultancy began with a few clients, and today has upwards of eight clients, and is in the process of hiring an associate soon.
“Right now, we’re a small-but-mighty team of one, that being me, but we’re expanding. We’ve closed a few deals throughout the city, and Metro Detroit and are looking forward to closing more,” she says.
One of those clients include
Florian East Brewery in Hamtramck, in which Yongo-Bure assisted the owners with getting capital, pre-development, identifying contractors and sources of funding.
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Courtesy photo.Jubek Yongo-Bure helped provide the owners of Florian East Brewery in Hamtramck with predevelopment project management services.
Another collaboration she’s been an integral part of is a project in Pontiac,
Casa Del Rey. This historic 50+ unit, multi-family development used MEDC funds and CDFI dollars. This notable 1929 building, designed by Greenfield Village architect, Robert O. Derrick, is believed to have been the largest apartment building in the city at the time. After sitting vacant for two decades, the building was in disrepair. In November, they broke ground on a $15.5 million rehab project, expected to re-open as affordable housing in 2026.
“I’m primarily behind-the-scenes in pre-development work, financial modeling and project management,” Yongo-Bure says. “I work with the owner as they have owner-architect-contractor meetings, doing a lot of pro forma development and modeling so we’re prepared to talk with financiers,” Yongo-Bure says.
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Photo by Steve Koss.Jumi Consulting Group helped with a historic Pontiac multi-development restoration project.
Yongo-Bure attended boot camp in 2018, and now is facilitating a few
speaker sessions at the 2025 Boot Camp in Detroit April 28-May 2. While working as an analyst, she participated in the weeklong immersive program and learned the fundamentals foundation.
“It’s a great networking opportunity in addition to learning about the ABC’s of development,” she says. “I felt so confident in development that I started my own firm."
Not only did the Boot Camp inspire a career move, but it also provided clients for Jumi Consulting too. Another fellow camp participant, Jarret Saunders of
Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, a nonprofit working to end mass incarceration, attended the same week as her.
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Courtesy photo.Photo showcasing the 2018 CEDAM Real Estate Development Boot Camp graduates. Jubek Yongo-Bure shown far right.
As the consultant prepares to present her sessions, she hopes to impart knowledge to students.
“Development is a long game, it’s not something that is a quick and easy thing to do, so I want to let folks know that the actual development process takes a while,” she says. “It’s always important to do your diligence, have patience, and listening to what the community wants — and then try to service that need. Also, the importance of networking and connections — those are invaluable.”
Going from student-to-teacher is a proud, full-circle moment for Yongo-Bure.
“The work that I do in real estate development, community development and urban planning is really my passion,” she says. “It feels good to be able to share that with folks because the larger community should have a piece of the pie in development. There’s a lot of great ideas, and it shouldn’t be that scarcity mindset. It’s just having access to the knowledge so that we can all develop, thrive, and grow.”
Working alongside those grassroots community developers, whether a church, faith-based nonprofit, a block club, a mom-and-pop shop, or an individual person seeking out change, Yongo-Bure believes the solutions for communities reside within us.
“I don’t think you need to be a mega-developer, just having the access to education and funding is imperative and essential in order to bring about the change we want to see in our neighborhoods,” she says.
Dakota Riehl, senior real estate development manager for
ICCF Community Homes, took the Boot Camp class in 2017, and presented material in the 2024 Boot Camp.
“ICCF Community Homes is a 50-year old affordable housing nonprofit,” Riehl says. “They’ve been doing a diversity of housing since that time, from home ownership to multi-family affordable rentals, and even emergency transitional housing for families. We also provide housing education through housing counseling and first-time homebuyer education classes.”
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Courtesy photo.Dakota Riehl is the senior real estate development manager for ICCF Community Homes in Grand Rapids.
ICCF predominantly serves the Southeast community of Grand Rapids, but their work expands throughout Kent County. Riehl began with the company in 2017, and one of her job requirements was to attend Boot Camp.
“My colleagues and bosses had all attended Boot Camp previously and had found it really meaningful, especially for someone like myself who had absolutely no exposure to real estate before I got my job at ICCF,” she says. “I had worked in community development type work, but nothing specific to real estate or housing.”
Riehl says the program provides a great opportunity to meet colleagues in the field, many of whom she’s still in touch with. One of her fellow classmates went on to become a State Representative, advocating for affordable housing.
“This was essentially my first exposure to a lot of the technical side of affordable housing development,” Riehl says. “We learned all about the low-income housing tax credit program and how to evaluate sites for scoring purposes, which I still use everyday.”
When it came to presenting last year, Riehl’s session focused on the development process and building a team of members and third-party partners.
“Later on in the conference, we also did a tour of ICCF properties that folks might be interested in,” she says. “I presented what led to the development of those, and special funding reminders that led to the successful development of the buildings we were seeing.”
Riehl says she’s proud to be in a field full of talented, passionate, community-driven people and partners.
“It’s exciting to be a part of getting people excited and confident in their work,” she says. “Part of our job as presenters and as community development folks is to try and explain that everything is changing everyday. There’s going to be a new term and approach tomorrow that I’m going to have to learn next to you. Part of it is just making sure that you have the tools to find the answer, and to build up confidence that you can do it.”
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Courtesy photo.Dakota Riehl, ICCF, shown, giving a tour of Grand Rapids community development projects.
Riehl considers the Boot Camp as a standout educational development training tool, and a critical piece in the complex puzzle of solutions.
“It’s unique in that it does take an affordable housing and community-development approach, which is super valuable,” she says. “It’s not just market-rate real estate development training, it’s truly focused on meaningful, diverse housing typology creation which can be overwhelming, but it’s also so fruitful. That’s something to celebrate. We need more professionals in this space, and Boot Camp is such a gateway for that.”
Reyst says one of the team’s longterm goals with Boot Camp is to provide more alumni networking opportunities and in-person time to allow connections. On March 20, CEDAM is hosting a 2025
Housing Developers Forum in partnership with MEDC, MSHDA, and FHLBank Indianapolis.
“This is another one of those opportunities where we’re talking about how emerging developers can work and partner with experienced developers, how those partnerships come to fruition, best practices, and looking at some case studies,” she says. “We’re hosting other types of events exploring other ways to keep our network engaged with each other, and to better track our outcomes.”
The 2025 Boot Camp application is available
online, and costs $899 for CEDAM members and $1499 for non-members. There are potential scholarship opportunities for folks who experience financial barriers, available on a case-by-case basis, according to Reyst.