Kwame Jackson, the runner-up on the first season of the NBC reality TV show, The Apprentice, plans to bring 32,000 jobs to Prince George’s County over the next few years.
Using what he learned on The Apprentice, Jackson has landed his first big real estate deal since being on the show.
Jackson and his business partners, Erik Moses and David Smith, formed Legacy Development Partners, LLC. Their company, along with NAI Michael Companies, plans to develop a residential and commercial development called Rosewood in Prince George’s County.
Rosewood, named after a black community in Florida that was burned to the ground over racial issues, will cost an estimated $3 billion.
Jackson said Rosewood would help create intergenerational wealth and significantly boost the economy in the county.
“Prince George’s County is by far one of the most affluent African-American communities,” Jackson said Friday. “[Rosewood] will push a new wave of development and economic interest in our community. It will be a national landmark that other people can look to.”
Jackson, a Washington native, visited the university to talk about career success Feb. 25 and said he plans to return to the area to oversee the project. The company will break ground on the 500-acre site in about a year, he said.
“It’s scheduled to build out in about 10-15 years,” Jackson added.
Jackson said Legacy Development hopes Rosewood will be an elite community for residents as well as for businesses and visitors to the area.
Rosewood will have both residential and commercial sectors, according to a news release. Jackson and his partners also plan to include retail stores, restaurants and a state-of-the-art medical facility.
The real estate complex will be located about a mile outside the Capital Beltway at the corner of Suitland Parkway and Pennsylvania Avenue in Suitland. The site is about 20 miles from the campus.
Jackson said he has received plenty of support for the project from county officials, including County Executive Jack Johnson. Gov. Bob Ehrlich has also donated substantial funds to help with the project, Jackson said.
Jackson said Legacy Development chose to develop Rosewood in Prince George’s County because Moses, one of Jackson’s partners, had already been building some coalitions in the area.
Jackson has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s of business administration from Harvard Business School. He was involved in many small Internet companies during his time at Harvard, and from his experiences at these companies he said he gained knowledge that later became valuable to him in his career on Wall Street.
He has taken his experiences from working at Proctor & Gamble and Goldman Sachs as well as what he learned from Donald Trump on The Apprentice and used it in his own enterprise, he said.