DETROIT – A Detroit native came back home when Detroit was in the depths of bankruptcy and is helping play a crucial role in redeveloping the city’s neighborhoods.
Sonya Mays left a very successful job as an investment banker on Wall Street to help guide Detroit through bankruptcy. She returned home six and a half years ago and didn’t know exactly what to expect. She knew there was a lot of work to be done, though.
“The circumstances that I came here were really challenging,” Mays said. “I grew up here and it was very painful to see the city hit such a low, and to really think about the consequences of having to go to a bankruptcy. So that was all, really -- really tough. But I thought it was important that there was somebody that was in charge of the team that was from here and had a connection that was going to survive the actual work of the bankruptcy.”
She said that work mattered to her on a deep, personal level.
“In a lot of ways it was almost this point of inspiration that, for me, that came out of that whole financial collapse period and for someone who had over time grown pretty jaded of what government can do and what society was capable of," Mays said. “What I saw coming out of 2014 and 2015 was this real point of inspiration, where there were a group of people -- both business leaders, corporate leaders, nonprofit leaders, but also everyday citizens who were committed to turning this place around. For the first time in my life, I really saw, and more importantly, believed that you can actually change the trajectory of an American city.”
Mays doesn’t like to call it a rebirth, but rather a shift. As the president of Develop Detroit, she’s part of the growth. The nonprofit real estate development company has been working to rebuild the city’s North End, as well as Eastern Market, Grandmont and Woodbridge.
“My nonprofit was actually started coming out of the bankruptcy in response to this collective understanding that Detroit really needed a mission-focused housing company,” Mays said. “What my organization is most interested in is: How could we use real estate in partnership with other community organizations to help invest in neighborhoods that haven’t seen an investment in awhile, (that) maybe run a risk of being forgotten because so much attention is being paid to Downtown and Midtown?"
Mays said she has so many fond memories of her time spent on the city’s northwest side. She hopes other families in the future will be able to share those same experiences.
“I want my city to reclaim what was special about it when I grew up here,” Mays said.
She also believes in hiring contractors and builders who live and work in the city as another way to tap into homegrown talent.