Meet Adenah Bayoh; she is the first black woman to lead the development of a major affordable housing project in New Jersey. She is developing a five-story building that will contain 40 units, which will all be priced affordably for low- and moderate-income families, according to Gothamist.
The 46-year-old’s journey in real estate started in her mid-20s. She acquired her first income-generating property in 2001. It was a three-family home in Irvington, a middle-class suburb near her hometown of Newark.
“When you grew up in Newark, Irvington was like the next thing that your family did. We call it getting out the hood,” Bayoh told Gothamist.
She stayed in one of the apartments and rented the other two to generate income, which allowed her to buy four more houses. However, when the 2008 financial crisis happened, she faced multiple foreclosures due to taking on subprime mortgages to finance the properties.
“I said to myself… this can either be the defining moment of my young life. This can either make me or break me. The choice is mine,” Bayoh said. “And what I did was I rolled up my sleeves, and I started fighting the banks,” she said.
One of the first steps she took was to negotiate with some of the banks in court to hold on to two of her properties. Although this affected her credit, she managed to survive, unlike several others who were affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, Gothamist said.
She later ventured into the pancake industry after realizing that Irvington lacked quality casual dining.
“All we had at the time was two run-down diners, Popeye’s and McDonald’s; just go down the list of the fast food greatest hits. And I just didn’t think that was right,” she said.
In 2007, she acquired a local diner for sale and turned it into an IHOP (the International House of Pancakes). Since then, she has gone on to open seven restaurants, including four IHOPs. She became the youngest African-American with the franchise at age 27. What is more, her moves have made her Irvington’s second-largest employer, according to Gothamist.
Despite her success in the restaurant business, she decided to return to real estate in a big way in 2010. She joined forces with a partner to redevelop Irvington General Hospital, which closed in 2006 and had deteriorated over the years. They developed close to 300 units of affordable housing at the site of the hospital.
A former Liberian refugee, Bayoh’s journey as a refugee began at the age of 9 when one night she was suddenly awakened by her grandmother after rebels entered their Liberian village. After packing a few bags, they quickly escaped and walked more than 200 miles until they reached Sierra Leone.
At the age of 12, Bayoh had to live in a refugee camp in Sierra Leone until she got the opportunity to move to America where she was warmly accepted in Newark, New Jersey.
Coming from a war zone country where her opportunities and privileges were taken away from her, Bayoh was hungry for success and used all the opportunities that America provided her despite its setbacks.
She attended a public high school in New Jersey and saw herself through college studying Business Management at Fairleigh Dickinson University while working at McDonald’s. During her college years, she served as the resident assistant which sparked her interest in real estate.
