Shelia Wright and Angela Thi Bennett are the driving forces behind a development group on a mission to create affordable housing opportunities for the Cleveland, Ohio, community.
When they created Frontline Development Group, the goal has always been to advance real estate development that enhances wealth generation.
According to Signal Cleveland, the co-owners and limited partners’ first major project was Gordon Crossing, a mixed-income apartment building housed on the city’s East 101st Street. Tenants first began moving into the establishment in 2026, a long time coming for the women invested in fostering better opportunities for the people in their community, starting with the basic need for housing.
“We realized it wasn’t just about us,” said Wright, Frontline president.
Bennett serves as vice president and general counsel. Both women had similar experiences growing up on Cleveland’s East Side and in East Cleveland and went on to become successful MBA- and law-degree-holding women.
Launched in 2018, Frontline is among the only 0.40% of Black real estate developers in the United States. As an emerging developer in Cleveland, the company is an anomaly, especially given that Black East Side neighborhoods, including Central, Hough, and Fairfax, have suffered disinvestment for years.
Black developers are a rarity, which is why Wright and Bennett take their mission very seriously. In addition to creating affordable housing for residents throughout the historic Black neighborhoods in Cleveland, they’re committed to redeveloping. Frontline also includes minority contractors and workers on all of its projects.
“We’re in real estate development, but it’s also about people development,” said Bennett. “These are our people. We’re going to make sure that they’re able to economically participate in this development.”
The recent Gordon Crossing project isn’t their first rodeo. In 2020, Frontline broke ground on its first housing development, Allen Estates, with Phase 1 comprising six homes designed by architect W. Dan Bickerstaff.
“Everything I’m trying to do is purposeful and speaks to the larger community,” Wright told The Land at the time. “We want people who look like us working on this project.”
Demand for the first project was high, with over 1,300 people applying to live in the 54-unit Gordon Crossing. Their next development includes a plan to close on Gateway 66, an 80-unit mixed-income apartment complex that sits next to the historic League Park in Hough, in July. Construction is set to begin in August.
Wright and Bennett pride themselves on using Gordon Crossing and Gateway 66 to create affordable housing during a time when many city and county officials argue that the “demand for affordable housing outstrips the demand.”
Gateway 66 will include units targeting both working-class and middle-class renters, including two-person families with incomes between $39,800 and $63,800.
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