“Personally and professionally, I knew how important living is for stability. When I found out that there was a way to support these efforts and make a living, I quickly embarked on this path, ”says Que El-Amin. (File photo by Sue Vliet)
Que El-Amin came from a family who believed in serving others.
His grandfather fought for African American suffrage in Louisiana. His father ran the New Horizon Center, a community service and daycare center in Milwaukee. And his mother is a psychotherapist.
However, when he felt that social service wasn’t the best way for him, he found another way to follow in the family’s footsteps: through living.
El-Amin combined his passion for architecture with his need to serve by creating affordable housing for some of Milwaukee’s most economically deprived neighborhoods.
“I grew up in Milwaukee and saw how that changed,” said El-Amin.
El-Amin is building 43 affordable townhouses on North 37th Street and West Villard Avenue. And last summer, he embarked on a $ 60 million project that will convert a former Briggs & Stratton industrial estate in the West Center and North 33rd Street into approximately 200 homes when it opens next year.
From the neighborhood
El-Amin, 36, grew up in the Villard Avenue neighborhood and said he knew the importance of having decent and affordable housing for the area.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in graphic design in 2005, he embarked on his residential real estate career by co-founding Scott Crawford Inc. in 2007.
“I knew personally and professionally how important living is for stability. So when I found out that there was a way to support these efforts and make a living, I quickly took that route, ”he said.
Being a developer is one of the many hats El-Amin wears in his everyday life.
He also co-founded the Young Enterprising Society, or YES, with his brother Khalif, which runs several programs for students and young entrepreneurs in Milwaukee.
“I think it’s great that we were able to give others opportunities,” he said. “Milwaukee is a tough place to grow up, so it feels good to see people live off their ideas, start businesses, and graduate from college.”
Although El-Amin loves Milwaukee, he wants the city to be better.
“We’re okay with mediocrity,” he said. “As a city, we hardly make the best in the world. When you look at places like New York City and Chicago they strive for the best in the world. We have to reach for the best. “
Colleagues say his greatest asset could be friendliness.
“He’s one of the hardest-working people I know,” says Greg Meier, El-Amin’s mentor and one of the first to invest in one of his projects. “But he’s not only capable and able to move the business forward, he’s also really nice.”
As an avid traveler, El-Amin said that New York City is one of his favorite cities because of its tall buildings. He also named Washington, DC, as a different one because it was one of the first places he saw black people in rooms he had never seen before.
His mother, Amatullah Umrani, said having traveled widely was one of her son’s best qualities.
“It enables him to be with people of different socio-economic status,” she said.
“He is living our (his parents) wildest dreams,” said Umrani. “He does things that I could never have imagined.”
El-Amin also does photography and videography, both on site and during his travels. At one point he even moved to Dallas for a short film.
And El-Amin said there was more to be done.
“I think I have big new goals to achieve every day,” he said.
“It sounds clichéd, but I’ve learned that you have to be consistently persistent to achieve your goals,” he said. “You have to work on it every day, including weekends, public holidays and birthdays.”
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